Infinity
by thomthom830
Summary: Takes place after Aftermath and surrounds the events of Infinity War. My take on what would happen with Cap, Sharon and the rest of the Avengers after the events of Infinity War. Spoilers ahead! Please let me know what you think by leaving a review! Thanks.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: This story takes place after my story Aftermath and contains LOTS of Infinity War SPOILERS, so if you haven't seen the movie, you probably don't want to read this one.

I don't own anything to do with Marvel. Obviously…

Please enjoy.

INFINITY

Chapter One

Tony Stark sat behind his desk and rolled his neck to loosen the knots that had formed while he scrolled through an endless stream of emails. He was nearly boring him to tears and he was grateful for the distraction when his door opened without a knock.

"You can pretend to read your emails and whatever all you want, Tony, but I know you've been hiding in here moping. It's been nearly two hours and, quite frankly, its pathetic," Pepper Potts said as she crossed the room and perched on the edge of his desk. "You could just, oh, I don't know, call them. Or, really, call _her_."

"That is not what the phone is for, Pep," he replied.

The redhead sighed. "That was from way back when. Things ended so much better."

"But, it's not the same," he pouted.

"You can be petulant, but it's going out in the news tomorrow. I know you want to tell her about our engagement yourself, so you'd best just pick up the phone. You don't want her to hear about it on TMZ, do you?"

She leaned down and gave Tony a light, chaste kiss on his lips. She straightened back up and looked down at him in silence.

"Maybe we should try another one. It could kick me out of the funk I'm in. Do you think you could…"

She leaned down once more and pulled her into his lap. She laughed in surprise, but it was silenced as he kissed her hard.

"So, how about now?" she asked when they broke apart.

"I don't know. We might need to run a few more tests," Tony said with a smirk.

 _Two Years Prior…_

"…But it's home, Share. There must be something I can do or say to convince you to stay," Tony said. "You wouldn't have to stay here, you could live uptown."

Sharon Carter had been given the full bill of health and since Sin and Cathy had been moved to their permanent home in a maximum security prison, the band was breaking up once more. She smiled sympathetically at her godfather.

"Yes, it _is_ home and it _always_ will be. But being that there are orders to bring me in at the CIA and the Accords are still in effect, we need to lay low again."

Tony looked sad. "So, what's the plan? Where will you go?"

She shrugged. "We, uh, don't know that part yet."

"That's comforting," Tony said sarcastically.

Steve Rogers joined them in Tony's office. "It's going to be better for everyone, including you, if you don't know our location," he said. "Ross will never let you be if he even thinks you know a possible location. Sharon and I, and Wanda, Nat, and Sam – we'll manage."

"But…"

"Tony, we're on the wanted list. Clint and Lang – they had to take a deal and go on house arrest just so they could go back to their families. There is no budging and no negotiation."

"At least, not right now," Steve added.

Tony sighed deeply.

"Keep doing that all you want, but this _has_ to be this way," Sharon said.

"I _hate_ this," Tony said.

"Uh, duh? You hate everything and anything not done the Tony Stark way," Sharon smiled even though she was tearing up.

"You owe me five hundred big ones, little girl. I trademarked the phrase _the Tony Stark way_ in the nineties just in case," he said.

Steve cracked a small smile while Sharon rolled her eyes. "That doesn't surprise me in the slightest."

"Are you at least going to tell your mother where you're gallivanting off to?" Tony asked.

Sharon let out a small bark of laughter. "Oh, hell no."

Tony composed himself and gave Sharon a side-eye.

"This will always be home," he said. "That goes for the both of you." He reached out and shook Steve's hand. "You take excellent care of her, Rogers," he said, fighting the fact that he was choking up.

Steve nodded affirmatively. "Yes, sir," he said before looking over to Sharon.

"And you," Tony turned back to Sharon. "A signal or message that you and Rogers and the others are all right every now and then wouldn't hurt. I know you know how to do it."

Sharon nodded.

"But if we're being… _real_ …with one another and I like to believe that you and I, us, we always are. I love you, Sharon. Like you are my own kid," he said. He pulled her into a tight hug and she sniffled into his shoulder. While he was still holding her, he looked up to Steve. "I'm really holding you personally responsible for anything that happens to her and that is not limited to: hang nails, mosquito bites, split ends, all the way to injuries that occur from acts of otherworldly beings. Do you get me?"

"Got it," Steve said.

Tony released her and held the woman at arm's length to look her over. "All right, get the hell out of here before I decide to throw you both in one of Banner's cells."

"See you later, Tony," Sharon said and kissed him on the cheek.

He sighed deeply again as he watched Steve take Sharon's hand in his and lead her out of the room and out of sight.

Tony sat in his office staring out of the window for a long time after that. Even when he got the notice that one of the quinjets was being started, he didn't move. He watched the jet streak into the sky and turn into a pinpoint on the horizon until it disappeared completely. Tony knew they were right, but he definitely wasn't ready to admit it.

…

 _Present Day…_

"I've got something, Cap," Sam Wilson said as he read the radar in front of him. "Not sure what, though."

The group of them, nomads as they were, had been holed up in a _very_ tiny flat in London while Wanda and Vision were trying to escape reality in Edenborough. They were trying to keep their distance, but things had been off for the last couple of weeks, so Steve had them sticking a little tighter.

"Alien?" Steve asked with an almost-amused smile.

"It's not not-alien," Sam said. "Isn't it always alien?"

"Except for when it's not," Natasha Romanoff added. "Just got the signal from Share. She is safely back to the States; had no problems."

Steve nodded. He wasn't at all excited about being thousands of miles from Sharon, especially since they hadn't left each other's sides in two years. But she'd gotten word that her father had fallen ill and Steve insisted she had to go. It had been a doozy of a fight, but Sharon Carter, in heavy disguise, had flown commercial back across the Atlantic and was there now.

"Incoming distress signal from Wanda," Sam said.

Steve closed his eyes and sighed. "Let's move."

…

 _New York. Avengers Compound._ _Twenty-four Hours Later…_

"Sharon, you can stay with your family. I really think you should…" Steve said into the phone he held. There was momentary silence, but he knew what was coming.

The group of them: Steve, Natasha, Sam, Wanda, Vision, along with Bruce Banner and Rhodey were headed to Wakanda to help protect the Mind Stone and Vision. Steve knew that T'Challa and his brilliant science team could do something so Vision could be removed from the stone and vice versa. They could destroy the stone and keep Thanos from destroying the universe. Steve didn't want to tell Sharon _any_ of that and he decided that he wouldn't.

"Steve, Tony went missing after a donut-shaped spaceship from who knows where shows up in New York and you're going to Wakanda and you think I'm just going to sit idly by?"

"I know you want to come with us, but you need to stay with your family. They need you," Steve said.

"I need you," Sharon said. "I know that is cheesy, but it is what it is."

Steve smiled, despite everything. "You, of all people do not need _me_. The number of people that…"

"Shut up, Captain," Sharon said and Steve could tell she was smiling as well. "What aren't you telling me?"

"I…I'll let you know when we get to Wakanda but our contact might be a little sparse after that. Do you trust me?"

"Of course I do," Sharon replied softly. "I love you."

"I love you, too," Steve said back. "And I will see you when we get all of this sorted out."

…

 _Avengers Compound. Eighteen Hours Later…_

Sharon groggily awoke to people screaming. It wasn't the first time that it had happened, but she was never totally prepared for it. But staying at the Avengers compound, well, it was almost par for the course.

She was dragging herself out of bed when someone began pounding on the door.

"Oh, my god! Sharon! Sharon? Please tell me you're in there!" a voice shouted. It was Pepper Potts. The reason Sharon had come back to New York. Sharon's dad was on the mend and she took the first flight to New York to be with Pepper who had been distraught since Tony had told her she'd gone up in the ship.

Pepper was clearly sobbing while she continued to pound on the door and Sharon rushed to open it. She caught the redhead before she completely collapsed a moment later.

"What's wrong?"

"G-gone," she said between sobs.

Sharon was not prepared to see Pepper this way.

"What? Who's gone?" Sharon said as she helped Pepper to the bed to sit down. "Pepper, who is gone?"

"So…so many people," she whispered.

"What?"

"FRIDAY, tell Sharon," Pepper said quietly.

"Yes, ma'am. At approximately oh-eight hundred hours Eastern Standard Time, approximately fifty percent of the compound simply ceased to exist," FRIDAY said.

"What do you mean they ceased to exist?" Sharon said while looking at Pepper with a perplexed face.

"I have been running tests and there is not an explanation," FRIDAY said.

"I was talking with one of my staff and he just turned to dust. There are piles of dust all over the compound. And it's not just here. It's happened all over the world," Pepper continued. "This is why went up on that damned ship. What do we do now?" she asked Sharon.

A chill went through Sharon's entire body as the reality of the situation settled on her. People were disappearing all over the world and she had no idea who would have been spared and who was gone. She thought she was going to be sick for a moment as she peeked into the hallway and saw multiple piles where people had once stood.

"I, um, well, I don't know, Pepper. I need to think," Sharon said. In all of Aunt Peggy's stories and the SHIELD and CIA training, nothing prepared her to deal with this.

"Okay, uh, who came for Tony," Sharon said suddenly.

"What?" Pepper said.

"In the park the other day. Who was it?"

"Strange," Pepper said quietly as silent tears were running down her face.

"What is strange?"

"No, Dr. Steven Strange; he's the man who showed up and Doctor Banner was there and Tony went with them."

"All right," Sharon said as confidently as possible. "We'll see where Steven Strange lists his residence and start there. Do you think Happy…?"

But the question as answered quickly. "What the hell is going on? What happened do everyone?" Happy said as he came running to the open bedroom door. He breathed hard, from running and from sheer panic. "I was talking to a bunch of my guys and _poof_! They were gone. And I thought I'd seen it all…"

"We gotta go," Sharon said, pulling on a hoodie.

"Where are we going?" Happy asked.

"I'll tell you on the way," she replied. "Come on, Pepper. We have to go."

Sharon pocketed her cell phone, grabbed her wallet, and helped Pepper to her feet. "Okay, let's go." 

…

 _Wakanda_ …

Steve Rogers, bruised and bloodied from the battled, looked out at the battleground below. He'd seen his friends disappear, one by one, into dust. They'd lost and Thanos had had destroyed half the population on the planet. He couldn't shake the look on Bucky's face as he disappeared and he felt just like he had so many years ago.

Somewhere inside him, he knew he needed to think about the big picture; that if it had happened to them in Wakanda, that people all over the world were suddenly gone as well, but he felt powerless now. No matter how hard they'd fought, they still hadn't been able to win.

"Steve?" he was mildly aware of someone saying his name. He'd closed eyes and must have drifted off to sleep. Steve opened his eyes and looked up at Natasha.

"What is it?"

"You should come see this," Natasha said. The woman turned on her heel and Steve held his sore side as he pushed himself eventually to his feet. He looked around at their remaining team as he passed by: Thor was with a talking raccoon, and Doctor Banner sat with Rhodey. All of them wearing the same defeated expression. Steve clasped Thor on the shoulder as he passed by but no words were exchanged.

Steve followed Nat into another room, while T'challa's sister, SHuri, frantically typed into the computer.

"Shuri will be taking over as ruler in Wakanda," Nat said quietly. Steve nodded.

"I don't think anyone is dead," Shuri said suddenly.

"So where are they?" Steve asked.

….

Author's note: y'all know what to do…


	2. Chapter 2

Infinity

Chapter Two

"What the hell is this place?" Happy asked as he pulled the car to a stop in front of 177A Bleeker Street.

"Don't know, but it was listed as Doctor Strange's home address," Sharon said. Not much surprised Sharon anymore, but being able to do legit magic seemed to be one of those things. "Pepper, how are you doing?"

The woman was in a semi-catatonic state. She'd watched quietly out the window as Happy drove them into the city. Every now and then, she'd let out a small gap to sob and while that seemed to keep Happy on edge, Sharon had learned to ignore it.

"Are we all going to knock on the door to the Addam's Family house, or what?" Happy asked.

"Well, we did drive all the way here," Sharon said. "Come on, Pep. Let's go see if Doctor Strange is home."

Pepper obediently followed behind Sharon and Happy followed her. Sharon had moved to knock on the door, but it swung open on its own.

"I knew you'd be coming, Ms. Potts, Miss Carter, and Mr. Hogan," the voice said. Wong stepped out of the shadows to reveal himself and the front door closed without a touch.

"Do you know what happened to Tony Stark?" Pepper suddenly asked, coming out of the trance-like state.

"Thanos has collected the six infinity stones," Wong said. "It is all random who he spared, but it is unlikely that Mr. Stark is alive any longer," Wong finished.

All of the remaining color drained from Pepper Potts' face and she let out a strangled sob.

"And Doctor Strange – are you Doctor Strange?" Sharon asked.

"No," Wong said.

"Do you know where we might find him?"

"I can only believe he is also gone. With a simple snap of his fingers, if he holds all six stones, Thanos destroys universes," Wong said sadly.

"Thanos?" Sharon said. "Do either of you know who Thanos is?"

"The Mad Titan," Wong said. "Doctor Banner said that Thanos sent Loki to lead the attack on New York six years ago. Thanos was on the mission to locate the six infinity stones; with them, he is the most powerful being of all time. Doctor Strange and I swore a solemn oath to protect the Time Stone with our lives, but with the recent events, I must believe that he laid down his life protecting it," Wong told them.

Everything suddenly became clear to Sharon. Steve had taken the others to Wakanda to protect the stone in Vision. Vision held the mind stone, and with the technology in Wakanda, their teams could very well remove it without hurting him. They could remove it and destroy it to keep it away from Thanos.

But it seemed like they hadn't been successful. Sharon felt like her knees weren't going to hold her and she was going to be sick, but she forced her body to remain upright.

"Do you think it's worth trying to reach out to Wakanda?" Happy asked. "Do you think anyone could have made it?" he asked Sharon quietly.

"I…I don't know," she said slowly.

"We have to," Pepper said. "We have to try. Maybe Tony…" she said, choking up.

Sharon pulled Pepper to her and held her as she cried.

"He could still be alive, Miss Potts," Wong said, backtracking. "He and the boy."

"The boy? What? The Spiderkid?" Sharon said. "He was there as well?"

"He was trying to protect the Doctor as well. Both he and Stark went on the ship," Wong explained.

"Shit," Sharon said looking to Happy.

"If his aunt survived whatever this was, she's going to be freaking out," Happy said.

"Would you go check on her?" Sharon asked.

"To Queens?" Happy said. "And leave the both of you?"

"I don't think Pepper should be traveling too much."

"She can stay with me and the Sanctum," Wong said. "I will make her some tea to help her relax," he said.

"Is that all right with you, Pepper? Do you mind staying with Wong?" Sharon said. She didn't want to go speak with Peter Parker's aunt any more than Happy, but if she wasn't a pile of dust, then she needed to be let in on everything going on. Well, almost everything.

Pepper nodded and Sharon made sure Wong had her contact info before she and Happy began moving out of the building to the car.

Driving through the semi-deserted streets of New York was an experience. It wasn't like the aftermath of the Battle of New York, because most of the city held no damage, no evidence of the destruction that had been wrought on it.

The piles of dust and ash everywhere was disturbing and Happy was steering around them as he drove them. Both were content to remain in silence for the duration of the trip.

It wasn't until they were outside Peter's building that either said anything.

"I'll go," Sharon said. "You should stay here, I think. Is that…"

"Good with me," Happy said without letting her finish.

…

 _Wakanda_...

"You don't think the people who turned into ash or dust or whatever might actually be dead?" Nat asked.

"Why should I?" Shuri asked.

Shuri had spent the last hour trying to explain why she believed that T'challa and the others had actually died.

"If we're going to lay out all the possibilities, you highness, I don't think that we should ignore the glaringly obvious one: that Thanos set out to destroy half of Earth's population and he'd done it," Steve said.

"Captain Rogers, I know you are as upset as I am," Shuri spoke softly. "But," she shook her head. "Something tells me, something deep within, says we need to not give up hope."

"I should have been sooner. And I should have gone for his head. I could have used it for a throne," Thor said angrily from the other side of the room.

"I don't know that it would have done any good. Having all six stones creates a lot of chance he could have stopped you at any time," Natasha said.

"Why are we the ones left behind?" Rocket said sadly. "It's not like my miserable life means much in the grand scheme of the galaxy."

"I do not believe we need to mourn our loved ones just yet," Shuri told them. "Get some rest. I will have some of the medical team come back to check on all of you. We will have a big meal tonight and tomorrow…tomorrow, we will begin our work to find those we lost."

Shuri nodded assuredly, but as she left the room, the remaining members of the Avengers, and Rocket, were hanging their heads.

"Rabbit, we could use Stormbreaker to go to Titan. We could see if your crew made it," Thor said.

"You would go back into space?" Rhodey said.

"He could look for Tony," Bruce told them. "The ship would have been headed to Titan – Thanos' planet."

"Banner, are you going as well?" Thor asked. "We could use…"

"Hulk still won't come out,' Bruce cut him off. "He had his ass handed to him and I think he's embarrassed."

Nat threw Bruce a side glance. "Shocking," she said sarcastically.

"Natasha…" Steve said tiredly. He had no energy or patience to deal with the leftovers of his team bickering amongst themselves. "Thor, you shouldn't go. At least, not yet. Let's…regroup, I guess," Steve said.

…

 _Titan…_

"Do you really think you can make this run?" Nebula asked.

"Tony, still shaking hours later from the loss he felt, was silently trying to hotwire the ship they'd arrived in. His suit was basically expensive garbage at this point, but one phaser still partially worked and he was using it to fuse wires. He gritted his teeth as Nebula continued to speak.

"We could simply go and steal another ship. A working one," Nebula said. "I know there are…"

Tony snapped. "No, no, listen, who or whatever you are. I just lost about everything and I'm pretty sure it's one hundred percent my fault, so if you would just do whatever you do here on this effing planet!" Tony shouted.

"Thanos is my father," Nebula said. "And he tortured me to make Gamora, my sister, talk, and then he killed her to get the soul stone. I want his head on a platter even more than you do," she said angrily.

"Well, you aren't alone on the daddy issues thing…"

"He kidnapped me from my home planet after he killed my family and slowly replaced parts of me with robotics so I could be more like Gamora," she said. "I've wanted nothing more than to take his life for so many years."

Tony put down the makeshift tool he held and gave Nebula a long look.

"Look, Betsey…"

"Nebula," she growled through a clenched jaw.

"Whatever. If we take one of your daddy's ships, he's going to know we survived."

"He knows anyway," Nebula said. "We might as well at least have a working ship," she added. "Or you could just sit here and continue to tinker away. It's up to you."

"Fine. Where are we going?" Tony said, finally giving in.

Nebula began to lead him through the sand landscape of Titan. It was a barren wasteland and it seemed nothing could grow in the desolate climate. Tony was silent as he followed her. He felt the loss of Peter deep in his chest. It was gnawing, desperate feeling and he could hear the kid's pleas in his head, even though he was trying to ignore it.

"Shit," Tony hissed as the feeling pulsed in his chest again.

"It's not much further," Nebula called behind her.

Tony said nothing still.

Even if he got back to Earth, what would he find? Was Pepper there; had she been speared? Or Sharon? The thought of the two of them having been reduced to a small pile of dust made him sick to his stomach. And if either of them survived – did they have to watch someone near them disappear? Did Sharon watch Rogers become nothing? That was it. Tony stopped, bent over, and emptied the remaining contents of his stomach into the sand.

He'd felt powerless before, defeated even. But the grief and guilt was consuming him. His mind flashed to the memory of the Avengers all dead and Rogers using his last breath to tell him off.

"You have to keep going," Nebula's mechanical voice demanded of him. "You cannot stay here, Stark," she told him.

He collapsed in the sand next to where he'd been sick. "What's the point?"

"You cannot stay on Titan. _I_ won't stay on Titan. You and I need one another to get off this damned planet. You know as well as I do that you have no hope of fixing things…"

" _Fixing things?_ " Tony said while giving Nebula an incredulous look. "Fixing things?" he repeated as he pushed himself to his feet. "You can't _possibly_ think there is an iota of hope that anything could be as it once was. You are out of your mind – or circuitry – or whatever."

"I simply refuse to believe that what was done cannot be undone. Thanos…"

"You think that going to him and telling him we're sorry, could he please put our friends and families back together and he'll just do it?"

"If it means he could have Gamora back, I think he'd do just about anything," Nebula replied. "Now get moving. The faster we get to the shipyard, we can find him."

"We're going to be making a pit stop on Earth before running after your crazy dad," Tony said, beginning to walk. "I need to know if there is anyone left to help us."

"There's more like you?" Nebula asked.

"Well, none on is _just_ like me, sweetheart."

…


	3. Chapter 3

Infinity

Chapter 3

" _I do," Steve Rogers smiled proudly as he looked to his bride, Sharon Carter. She was beautiful in her white dress and she was beaming back at him._

" _You may now kiss the bride," the pastor next to them said and Steve and Sharon leaned toward one another._

 _He could feel his hands on her waist as he held her close to him, but then suddenly he felt nothing at all._

 _Sharon was disappearing into dust and when he reached for her in panic, he realized his groomsmen behind him, Bucky and Sam, were also disappearing._

 _Around him, the church full of people and the bridesmaids – Natasha and Wanda – turned to dust. In a split second, he and Tony Stark were the only two left. And then Tony was gone, too._

Steve woke up suddenly and sat upright in his bed. He'd been fighting sleep, but eventually the exhaustion had won out. But now he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep, at least, not well.

Steve climbed out of bed and decided to walk through the palace. It was dark, still only two in the morning. He stopped at an overlook and gazed out on what was left of Wakanda.

"Captain Rogers, you should be getting some sleep," Shuri said from the shadows behind him.

"As should you, your highness," Steve said seriously.

She joined him at the railing and gave him a small smile. "Yes, I should be. But sometimes, you need a middle of the night snack. Come to the kitchens with me, Captain."

"Please, call me Steve, your highness."

"And enough of the _your highness_ business; Shuri is my name. You can call my brother that when we bring him back," she said. "Steve," she added.

"I admire your optimism, SHuri," Steve said. "But I am still struggling to believe that we'll be able to get anyone back."

"Steve, have you considered that what happened was because of the Reality Stone?" Shuri said as she pulled a couple items from one of several refridgerators in the room.

Steve hadn't wanted to admit to anyone that he hadnt' considered anything except for taking what Thanos had said at total face value. He didn't want to allow himself to have hope.

"Your silence speaks volumes. But even my mother, a skeptic of unbelievable proportions, is thinking this way."

"It could be denial, however," Steve said.

Shuri smiled and shook her head at Steve. "You're going to need proof, aren't you?"

"Ma'am, I _do_ like seeing the hard and fast evidence. And so far, we've got piles of dust where our friends and family once stood and reports from all over the world that we aren't alone," Steve explained, leaning on the counter. "As much as I would like to believe that Thanos didn't actually remove half the population, well, all evidence remains to the contrary, princess."

"One, don't call me _princess_. And two, please allow yourself a moment to take a deep breath and relax. Think about it, Stebve. It's a very real possibility that Thanos decided he wanted to keep playing with us, that we would be just as you all are: defeated. But we aren't defeated. And I know that if we could get our hands on his gauntlet, we could set reality back straight," Shuri said.

Steve took a deep breath and let his shoulders relax. "I've got nothing else to lose, Shuri. SO, I hope you're right."

"I think that was almost a compliment, captain," Shuri smiled. "Although, when I bring my big brother back, he and I are going to have a long talk about our borders," she laughed.

…

 _Titan…_

"I rarely – ie, never – do this, but I'm going to _let_ you get this thing started up," Tony said as he inspected what he figured to be an instrument panel.

"Oh! How _kind_ of you. And how totally unexpected as you haven't a clue how to do anything aboard the ship," Nebula said sarcastically.

"You are really getting on my nerves, 7 of 9, you know that?" Tony replied.

She continued to input instructions, her mechanical joints moving her fingers at lightning speed.

"If I had nerves, I'm sure you would have done the same, Stark," she said with her teeth gritted tightly.

"How long do you think it will take us to get to Earth?" he asked. "What realm or dimension are we in?"

"If the boosters still work, 36 hours. If not, well, more like 72," Nebula told him. "Probably."

Tony said nothing, but cracked his neck.

"Is there any food aboard this – whatever this is?" he asked.

"The ship will be equipped with nutrition pods. They are able to support any life form, so it'll be hit or miss if it provides sustenance to you, but you can always try," she said as she gave him an evil smirk.

"I see what you did there and honestly, I'm not even made. It was a pretty sick burn coming from Thanos' reject spawn."

In an instant, Nebula had launched herself at Tony and had him by his shirt collar.

"You and I will only speak when it is absolutely necessary from here on out. It is the only way I can guarantee that I won't murder you in cold blood," Nebula told him.

"I think we can make that work," Tony replied. "Does this thing have a radio?" he asked with a smirk.

True to his word, Tony kept to himself for several hours of the trip. Yes, it was boring, but he was biding the time as he taught himself all about the alien craft he was flying through space on.

It was fascinating. He hadn't yet figured out what was propelling them forward through space, but he was certain that he'd have it by the time they were to Earth.

In all honesty, Tony wanted to figure out the communications system. He'd been trying to hack into it, without much success, so he could patch whatever what was left of the innards of his nanotech suit and let Pepper know that he was okay. Or at least find out if Pepper was alive. That thought almost made him violently ill again and he put his focus back on making the ship his bitch.

It had been another several hours before Nebula came looking for him.

"You've been surprisingly, and suspiciously, quiet," Nebula said as she walked into the engineering room. "What _are_ you doing?"

"I thought you didn't want to make small talk, Wall-E," Tony said from behind one of the potential server units.

"You're going to wreck it," Nebula told him in an anxious tone.

"Wrong movie," Tony said. "I'm getting extremely close to connecting my suit to the ship's comm systems."

"What do you mean?" Nebula asked.

"I really don't know how I could be more clear," Tony said. "I am going to connect my suit's tech to the ship so I can attempt to phone home, okay?"

Nebula said nothing.

"I'm grouchy. The food pods on this thing are shit and I'm displeased with my efforts here. Also, the small detail that all the people I love might be dead. I don't know what I'm going to find if and when we do get back home," Tony said as he continued to type into a screen.

Reality had finally struck Tony and he felt like he could be truthful with Nebula. He stayed quiet while he continued to work, but he watched her from the corner of his eye.

"I understand," Nebula said slowly. "Thanos, he killed my family and kidnapped me from my home planet. I had Gamora, and now…now I have nothing again," she told him. "There's nothing left."

"Not to get all touchy-feely, because I actually _hate_ that, but I understand. My parents were murdered. I was an adult – sort of – but it's been a…thing…ever since. So, I get it."

"So, we have more in common than we originally thought," Nebula said.

"So it would seem," Tony replied. "Don't think that makes us friends, GI Jane," he added quickly.

"No, I would never. I'm sure I'll want to kill you in no time," Nebula told him.

"How much longer do we have in this tin can? I'll be able to tell once my tech is fully integrated but your dad fried it pretty good, so…" 

"It's going to be a while, Stark," she said in a resigned tone. "Make yourself at home."

"Oh, I already have, kiddo," Tony said, puling open another panel in the wall. "I'm going to make this work. You just go on back and make sure we aren't on a collision course. I"ll come find you when I make contact."

Nebula nodded. So much for being in charge, she thought to herself. But perhaps it would be better this way.

…

 _New York. Queens…_

Sharon had knocked on May Parker's apartment door twice and the way her stomach felt, she was sure something was up. But just as she'd decided to leave, the door opened up.

"Hello?" the woman said. It was definitely May Parker.

"Hi Mrs. Parker, I'm Sharon Carter," Sharon said as she realized she'd forgotten to use an alias. "I am, well, I used to be. Starting over. I'm Sharon Carter, Tony Stark's goddaughter."

"Do you know what happened to Peter, then?" she asked. "He sent me a text that he was going to be late and that was 24 hours ago! He was helping that no-good Stark wasn't he? I know he's Spider-man and I can only imagine what my nephew and Stark are actually up to," she said in a low voice even though no one was in the hall to hear them.

"Have you seen the news? Also, can I come in? We need to talk in private…" 

"Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, yes. Come on," she said, standing aside to let Sharon into the apartment.

May closed the door with a click and her eyes flickered momentarily to Peter's empty room.

"Do you know what happened with Peter?" she asked.

"Well…"

"Oh god," she said, nearly collapsing.

"No, no, no. Don't panic. Yet," Sharon rushed to her. "I don't one hundred percent know what happened and all, but I do know that yesterday an alien craft came to New York and both Tony and Peter were on it when it left," Sharon said.

May was still. "And the people that disappeared? People just dissolving into thin air – do you know why?" May asked through the silent tears.

"My knowledge on this all is limited. But I'm sure Peter is just fine," Sharon lied.

"We only have each other, you know," May said. "And he's running around as Spider-man and – you said you're Sharon Carter?"

"Yes," she said back to May. "And my fiancé is Captain America and Iron Man is my godfather, so I know a little bit about what you're going through. I think you should come back to the Avengers facility with Happy and I. And I'm going to try to find out who is still here and attempt to make sense of things. And maybe reach out to Tony. I'm hoping that I can finagle the tech enough to find him, wherever he is."

"But how could Peter end up in space? Can he do that? Oh, he is going to be so grounded when he gets back," May said angrily.

"Yes," Sharon smiled. "Be mad, May. Angry is easier right now," Sharon said.

"How did Tony Stark end up as anyone's godparent?" May asked as she grabbed duffel bag from the closet.

Sharon shook her head. "It was the eighties," she shrugged.

Sharon helped May get packed up and she escorted her out of the building.

"Happy Hogan, I do believe you know May Parker," Sharon said by way of introduction.

Both exchanged solemn nods.

"Did _you_ know he was Spider-man the whole time?" May asked Happy pointedly.

"Yes. And I repeatedly told him to steer clear of actual danger and maybe stick to rescuing cats from trees and giving directions to old ladies," Happy replied.

"Good," May said.

"Mrs. Parker…"

"May."

"May," Sharon corrected. "Is coming with us upstate, okay? I'm going to bring her to Avengers HQ and she can wait for Peter there and be safe."

Happy gave Sharon a strained looked, but nodded.

"Are you sure that I should go? What if he comes home and I'm not there and he thinks _I'm_ a pile of dirt or something…" she trailed off.

"I wrote Peter a note while you finished packing. He'll know where to go if he goes home first," Sharon said. "We should get moving, though," she said. The ominous feeling in her gut was coming back and she was relieved when Happy closed the door on May a moment later.

"Do you really think we should take her?" Happy asked as they put the bags in the trunk.

"Do you want to leave this poor woman alone in Queens while the world is ending?" Sharon replied.

"Sometimes you are _just_ like Tony and it's terrifying," Happy replied.

"Let's move," Sharon said. "Now."

"You and Romanoff had some of the same training, too, didn't you?" he asked as they moved on separate sides of the car.

She winked at Happy and climbed in on the passenger side. Happy climbed into the driver's side and started the car.

"Back to Bleeker for Pepper and then upstate, right?" Happy asked.

"Affirmative."

"So…do we know why people went _poof_? Was it more aliens or something?" May asked.

"Um, probably," Sharon replied. "I'm really sorry I don't have more information. It's…"

"How do you both do this? Every day could be something else and your loved ones just run towards it instead of away. Isn't it absolutely terrifying?"

"Someone's gotta do it," Happy said.

"I would imagine the families of police and firefighters, not to mention any one in the armed forces, go through the same thing. I just tell myself that they're just really good at what they do and they'll be okay," Sharon said.

Happy had just started the car and moved it into _drive_ when someone ran in front of it, bouncing off the hood because of their speed.

"Wait!" the young man shouted.

"What the…" Sharon started.

"Ned," Happy and May said together.

…

Author's note: let me know what you think!


	4. Chapter 4

Infinity

Chapter 4

The hushed argument that ensued between Sharon and Happy after Ned showed up was interesting. Sharon had known Happy for a long, long time and normally, he'd defer to her judgement…evidenced in bringing May back upstate with them. But bringing Ned…it was a whole different thing.

"Happy, I cannot, in good conscious, leave that 15 year old alone in the city," Sharon said. "Wouldn't it be what Tony would do?" she blinked.

"Don't…don't you dare give me that look," Happy said. "That stopped working when you were 16 when you stole one of the cars and told me it was an accident," Happy said. "You are an adult now."

"Oh, come on. Look at him. You _know_ him. He's Peter's best friend and…"

"You've never met the kid, Share," Happy said. "And he's a hacker…"

"Perfect. He can help me."

"You have the team at HQ. Or what's left of it," he replied.

"May won't let us leave without him. Look," Sharon pointed into the backseat of the black town car.

Happy shook his head and held his mouth in a thin, grim line.

"What are we doing? Just opening the building to whoever? It's not a boarding house," Happy said.

"I know what you're thinking. I get it. But he and May know Peter is Spider-Man and they both know his disappearance, as well as everyone else's, has something to do with the alien ship that showed up. Wouldn't it be better to keep them close by?" Sharon said.

Sharon's phone dinged in her hand and she looked down at the alert.

"What is it?" Happy asked, trying to gauge her thoughts from her expression while she read her phone.

She put her phone back in her pocket a second later. "Well, some of Coulson's team went _poof_ , too," she said.

"Coulson?" he repeated. " _Phil_ Coulson? The Phil Coulson that…"

"That's a conversation for another time. And I also sent out a message to Hill and Fury and I haven't heard from them at all, so…" she trailed off.

"They're gone, too."

"I am leaning that way," Sharon said.

"I don't think we should keep bringing people to headquarters," he said. "Too many people to look after…"

"Ned isn't just people, Happy. He's Peter's best friend. And currently he's all alone. I won't do it."

Happy looked back at the town car and sighed _very_ deeply. "Fine. But you're going to be responsible for him when we get to HQ. I can't have him running around opening doors and cabinets and pushing buttons."

"He's 15, Happy. He's not a toddler," Sharon said.

"I remember _you_ at 15, kid," he said.

"Ned is a totally different person, Happy. C'mon, we should probably get going to so we can get Pepper and head back. I want to get on to reaching out to someone…or anyone," Sharon said.

"You think you'll get someone?" Happy asked.

Sharon shrugged. "I have to hope I can," she replied.

"Well, you probably should since your boss is MIA and Pepper's having a bit of a breakdown," Sharon said as she opened the car door. "Bleecker Street and then to HQ."

Sharon put Pepper in the front seat when they picked her up. She had since calmed down slightly, thanks to Wong, but expectedly, she was still on edge. Sharon sat beside Ned, who wasn't freaking out as much as he probably should have been. May was quiet and we watching out the window as people were starting to panic as the reality spread.

"So, does this all have to do with the spaceship that Peter went after?" Ned asked.

Sharon looked to him. "Um, well, probably. But I haven't been in touch with anyone to confirm," she said.

"And we haven't heard from him since?" he asked.

"You didn't get any contact, right?" May asked.

Ned shook his head. "Nope. So…who are you?"

"I'm Sharon Carter. I used to work for SHIELD…"

"What?" he said in a surprised tone. "They…"

"The _good_ guys in SHIELD, not HYDRA. My Aunt Peggy would come and haunt me if I joined HYDRA. I could never do such a thing," Sharon trailed off.

"So, you seeing anyone?" Ned asked with a shy smile.

"I'm twice your age," Sharon said flatly. "And I'm engaged. To Steve Rogers. But good try," she said and watched his eyes go wide. "But if you never ask, you never know, right? Do you think you could help me patch a secure line into Iron Man's signal to try to find him? Sharon asked.

"You want me to hack the Iron Man tech?" he asked, his eyes even wider now. "Iron Man tech? From the Avengers HQ?"

"And I'll need you to help me secure a private message to Wakanda," she said.

"Wakanda? Will they…?"

"You don't even know what you don't know, Ned," Happy replied.

Inside the Avengers facility, business was semi-normal, considering the current state of affairs. Happy was leading them in and Sharon followed behind.

"Ladies, if you'll come with me," he began. "I'll make sure you get something to eat and drink and you can try to relax…"

"Happy, I thank you, but…" Pepper started.

"Pepper, you need to eat. Tony won't be pleased when he's back to find out that I didn't take care of you now."

Pepper considered this and then nodded. She looked at May and the two women started down the hallway, moving away from the rest of the group.

"See, I know how to use guilt, too," Happy said to Sharon before turning and following the two women down the hall.

"And you, Ned, you're going to be my right-hand man. I'm making you an honorary Avenger…assistant," she said. "Are you doing okay? This is all a lot," she asked.

"I think I'm compartmentalizing," he said. "I want to focus on helping you and Peter and the Avengers because that is what needs to happen right now. And that'll bring my family back, too, right?"

"That's the plan," Sharon said. There was no need to tell him all the details of Thanos and the fact that he was destroying universes with the Infinity Stones; it honestly wouldn't matter. She didn't have any real answers anyway. Well, none yet. But if they could find out what happened in Wakanda or if Tony was still alive somewhere, she knew they stood some kind of a chance.

"How big _is_ this place?" Ned asked as the two continued down the hall.

"Uh, big," Sharon said. "Are you hungry? Do you need anything? I feel like I'm being the worst adult right now," Sharon finished.

"It's okay, ma'am…"

"You can just call me Sharon, Ned," she shook her head.

"I'm okay, really. I think so, at least. I just don't know, you know?"

Sharon pulled him into what she hoped was a comforting hug. "I do know."

The two of them continued down the hall a moment later. They took a left and Sharon pointed to the elevator. She typed in her code and the doors opened to allow them entry.

"So, how far do we need to send a signal? Space, right?" Ned asked as the elevator descended further.

Sharon nodded. "Yes. We are going to talk with FRIDAY and see if the three of us could figure out a semi-exact area to send the signal from here or to search for one."

"Maybe do the GPS in Peter's suit, to? Would you be able to talk with Suit Lady?" Ned asked.

"Uh, Suit Lady?" Sharon replied.

"Mr. Stark included someone running info and diagnostics for Peter's Spider-Man suit, too. I think he called her Karen," Ned explained. "You don't know a lot about…"

"We've been away from HQ for a while. Being a wanted criminal does that…"

"Oh," Ned said in surprise. "For…"

"I stole Captain Rogers' shield and Sam Wilson's – the Falcon – gear back from the CIA and helped them escape capture with a third wanted criminal," she said casually. "I'm only wanted just a bit by the government."

Ned nodded slowly as the elevator came to a smooth stop. The doors opened and the two of them walked out into a lobby area that was separated by glass from a large room that appeared to go on and on.

"I hope he hasn't changed my code," she said, stepping up to the retinal scanner. She keyed the code and allowed the scanner to view both eyes.

The doors to her left slid open and allowed them entry.

"Welcome to Tony Stark's private lab and work space," Sharon said. "Please, please, please do not touch anything without asking first, okay?"

"Yes, ma'…Sharon," Ned said as he looked around the room.

"FRIDAY?" Sharon said cautiously.

"Good afternoon, Agent Carter," the voice said warmly, or as warmly as an AI could.

"FRIDAY, Ned and I are going to need your help. Ned, that's FRIDAY. FRIDAY, you're probably well aware of Ned," Sharon said.

"Yes, Mr. Stark and I have sufficient information on Mr. Ned Leeds of Queens, New York," FRIDAY said. "Good afternoon, Ned. It is nice to speak with you."

"It's, uh, nice to speak with you, too," he said slowly to the entire room. He looked around and then he spotted something that he ran towards. "Is that the…"

"Yes! That's Tony's original Arc Reactor. Please do not touch it. He's going to know if you breathed too hard in its general direction…"

Ned backed away slowly.

"FRIDAY, you know what we have to do," Sharon said as she sat in Tony's chair at his lab computer. In an instant, the glass table was lit up with information. The entire thing was a computer.

"So, we need to find Tony…" Sharon said.

"Mr. Stark's last available location was Titan," FRIDAY stated. "His nanotech suit sustained devastating damage; he last used his right gauntlet repulsor to mend something. It was not used on it's highest setting."

Sharon was quiet.

"That's good, though, right? They're on a moon of Saturn and…" Ned stopped. "A moon of Saturn," he repeated as he thought about what he'd just said.

"Titan is the largest of Saturn's moons," FRIDAY said. "And…"

"FRIDAY, could you try to ping a signal to what's left of the suit?" Sharon asked.

"I can certainly try, however, I should not that Titan is, on average, 1.4 billion kilometers from Earth at any given time."

Ned's mouth was slightly agape.

"Yeah, there are a lot of things that schools aren't allowed to teach you yet," Sharon said. "Do you think you could work with FRIDAY to amplify her beacon?"

Ned nodded. "I could probably…"

"Good," Sharon cut him off. "And FRIDAY, do you have access to Tony's AI for Peter Parker's suit?"

"Of course. Connecting…" she said. A moment later FRIDAY was back. "Sharon Carter, I have accessed files for Karen, the digital assistant for Peter Parker, also known as Spider-Man."

"Hello, Karen. Thank you, FRIDAY," Sharon said. "I know Tony must have given you some kind of permanent monitoring protocol that Peter wouldn't be able to turn off and he could review. Could you show me?"

"Of course, Sharon. Hello, Ned," Karen said.

"Hi Karen," he said back with a goofy smile on his face.

Another screen lit up and began projecting some kind of video footage. There were aliens in the city, there was Iron Man, and being lectured by Tony. He was then sneaking aboard the ship when he was clearly told to stand down. Bits and pieces of fights and then Sharon gasped. The being on the screen had to be Thanos. Tony and Peter were working on trying to divest the gauntlet from his arm while something sat upon his shoulders, keeping him at bay. Then someone else arrived, shouting angrily about a Gamora. Thanos came back to full strength and the balance of power shifted; all hell broke loose.

"What – what happened?" Ned asked when the video had cut out for a moment.

"Um," but Sharon was silent again as another video of Titan began playing. It was Tony, looking bruised and battle-scarred, his suit almost entirely gone. Tony was looking directly at the screen before everything went black.

"I lost total connection at that point," Karen said.

"That doesn't mean he…you know…" Ned sputtered.

"No. It means we just need to find them," Sharon lied. "The four of us need to get to work," she said. "FRIDAY, let's give Ned some access, but not too much…"

"Of course, Sharon."

"Could one of you also access the trackers on any and all the other Avengers?" Sharon asked.

"We'll run that in the background as well," Karen said.

Sharon had lied to Ned and was feeling guilty, but she had to be the brave adult at this point. In all reality, that fade to black really meant only one thing, but she needed to pretend for the both of them that it meant nothing. And she knew it was completely unlikely that any Avenger tracker would be on – she'd only turned hers on that afternoon when she'd remembered it.

Sharon had lost all track of time and looked up in surprise as Happy joined them in the lab.

"Wait – he's – you let him use Tony's stuff?" Happy panicked, eyes wide while he looked at the kid.

"How else are we going to find them, Happy?" Sharon said. "We had to let him, right?"

"I, well, um…"

"We're getting closer, Mr. Happy," Ned said.

"It's just Happy," he said in a grumpy tone. "Come on, you two. You both need to eat something. You've been down here without a break for five hours."

"Whoa, really?" Ned replied.

"Yeah, whoa," Happy said in a sarcastic tone. "Let's go. FRIDAY will keep going."

Happy held the door open for them and both Sharon and Ned complied.

"Why are you so grumpy?" Sharon said.

"I like to be in control, Sharon," he said.

"Uh, we _all_ do. That's why we all bicker with one another so often."

"And I just can't control anything or even do anything and…"

"And your best friend is missing. In space. That's how Ned feels, too," Sharon said.

"Don't compare me to the kid," Happy said. "At least he gets to work with a pretty girl."

Sharon shrugged. "Don't pout, so do you."

"Can we just go already?" Happy asked.

Half an hour later, Ned, Sharon, and Happy were eating dinner with May and Pepper in the kitchen of the main living quarters. It was quiet, but both Pepper and May looked considerably better than they had earlier. They likely bonded over Tony.

Sharon was taking the final bite of her sandwich when FRIDAY alerted them.

"Agent Carter, please come down to the lab," she requested.

"I'll be right down, FRIDAY," Sharon threw down the bit and she was off in a flash.

It wasn't until she stopped for the elevator that she realized that Pepper was following her.

"Pepper, I don't think…"

"I need to know, whatever it is," she said.

"All right," Sharon said. She keyed the code once more and they climbed in when the doors opened.

Down in the lab, they waited for FRIDAY to tell them what she'd found.

"Karen and I were able to connect with something that matched the signal frequency of the nanotech suit that Mr. Stark was using on the occasion in question," FRIDAY said.

"What was it?" Pepper asked.

"Queueing up the audio file," Karen said.

"Audio file?" the two women repeated together.

A muffled recording began a second later. "I got it!" a man's voice shouted. "Shit!" he said. "It sent!"

But that was it.

"Play it again, Karen, But slow it down," Sharon said.

Sharon and Pepper listened closely as it repeated for them four more times.

There was no doubt it was Tony Stark.

"When did you get this?" Sharon asked excitedly.

"About ten minutes ago," FRIDAY replied.

"He's alive, Pepper!" Sharon smiled and Pepper looked relieved. "Okay, let's find him and bring him home! FRIDAY, Karen, let's search his signal again."

"On it," FRIDAY reported. "It's showing that it's moving closer to Earth; the echo-location that I'm using shortens slightly each time I send the signal."

…

Author's note; Okay, so it's been another several months for updating. I don't have an actual excuse; it's all plain laziness. Well, I guess my excuse is that I'm also working on an actual novel and that's where I've been spending my time. And throw in a move to a new place and a couple trips with friends and family and then suddenly the summer was over.

Anyway, hopefully you enjoyed this chapter. Please leave me a comment and let me know what you thought!

Thank you!


	5. Chapter 5

Infinity

Chapter 5

Steve Rogers leaned on the balcony railing and watched the sun set on Wakanda. He'd been alone with his thoughts for what felt like hours. He knew what had to happen next; he knew he would lead the team – what was left of the team – to meet with the remaining world powers and let them know what had taken place. Steve would also have to tell them that a plan was being worked on, to reverse the damage, but of course, there would be no guarantee that it _could_ be reversed.

He knew how the world was reacting. A lot of chaos and anarchy to combat the anger and grief and Steve would not and could not blame them. But he knew an announcement – worldwide – would need to be made so the destruction amongst themselves would end. They were going to have to unite as one.

It was now almost completely dark as Thor joined him. They greeted one another with a nod each before Thor leaned on the railing next to Steve.

"It almost makes me miss the Chitauri," Thor finally said.

Steve found himself unable to stop the smirk. "I think I do miss that bastard Ultron," he said.

Thor shook his head. "Rogers, do you have a plan? What the hell are we going to do?"

"We have to leave Wakanda as a united team. We'll find out if anyone else is left and we tell the world what happened," Steve replied.

"And when the world turns on us? Blames us?" Thor said.

"Maybe they'll unite. We didn't bring Thanos to Earth. He was on his rounds already. We need to make them know that."

"Maybe so. But…" 

"We just have to hope that they believe us," Steve said.

"Well, that's a relief," Thor said sarcastically.

Steve turned to the man next to him. "I didn't say it was my _best_ plan. I just said it was a plan," he said. "Do you have any ideas?" Steve asked.

Thor was quiet and contemplative for a moment.

"I think you're right. There aren't any other options," Thor said.

Steve shook his head. "I've tried to think of anything else. And…"

"And there isn't. Does it seem to you that we end up in these situations more than anyone else? I had to destroy Asgard to kill my sister. I nearly killed myself to gee that axe. You put that plan down in the water, sacrificing yourself. Stark took that missile into space…"

Steve nodded. "We're the most qualified, Thor," he shook his head.

"Tis true," Thor replied. "But now, there's so many gone. We don't even have Loki now."

"We'll do it," Steve said.

"How can you be so sure?" Thor asked.

"Because we have to," Steve replied. "We're the ones that are left and we will make it happen."

"I think your Thor beard is making you more confident," the man smirked.

Steve turned to look at his friend. "It's not a Thor beard. I was keeping it because I could blend in better."

"And your girlfriend liked it?" Thor said, nodding with a smirk.

Steve was quiet. "Well, yeah…" he admitted, making Thor laugh heartily.

Thor shook his head. "So, what do you think of my haircut?"

"I like it," Steve said. "What made you do it?"

"I didn't have much choice. A creepy old man on a trash planet did it. The same planet. I found Banner. Is he still down in the lab?"

Steve nodded. "To my knowledge, yes. We should go find them all and make sure they take a break."

The two men cast one more look out at the now-dark Wakanda and left the balcony.

…

"Play that again, will you, Shuri?" Bruce said while Thor and Steve walked into the lab and over to them.

"Roger that," Shuri said. A moment later a static-filled message played.

"… _headed to Earth…ship…only two of us…"_ the voice said.

"That sounded like Tony," Steve said. "Right?"

Bruce Banner popped his head around the computer screen. "That's exactly what I was thinking!" he exclaimed.

"Play it again?" Shuri said.

"Yes, please, Shuri. Thank you," Steve replied.

It played again and this time they were all in agreement.

"Yes, that _has_ to be Tony," Bruce said. "Has to be."

"And he said he was headed back to Earth," Thor replied. "How…?"

"This could be another of Thanos' tricks," Steve said.

"No," Shuri said. "Doesn't fit with Thanos' MO," she said. "Why would he bother? He already did what he wanted."

"I agree," Bruce said. "That was Tony and he's going coming home."

"So, who was he sending that message to?" Steve asked both Shuri and Bruce.

"I'm so glad you asked that, Steve," Shuri said with a smile. "It was on a channel that Dr. Banner tells me belongs specifically to the Avengers."

"Even more specifically, it was going to the Avengers HQ in New York," Bruce told them. "In fact, I believe it came from Tony's lab. Not a whole lot of people can run anything on his equipment."

"So, maybe Pepper or even Fury?" Steve said.

"Maybe," Bruce said. "So someone is there. I think we need to make contact with New York, don't you? Now that we know someone is there."

"What do you think, Rogers?" Thor said. "It is in line with what you'd been saying," he added. "It could even be Barton."

"I don't suppose we even have a choice, then," Steve said. "We need to reach out as well, so someone at HQ knows what's going on."

…

"Did you hear that?" Tony exclaimed. Despite his boredom and slight exhaustion/dehydration, he was ecstatic. Someone had been able to use FRIDAY to contact him. Someone at HQ was able to find him.

He used that signal to set the course of the ship they were on and they were for certain headed to Earth.

"Who responded to the call?" Nebula asked.

"I don't know. But it was someone who was able to get my system to work for them and only a few people have one hundred percent access to do that, so it's narrowed down to five people."

That thought gave Tony hope. Someone…either Pepper, Sharon, Happy, Rhodey, or Fury was still around and knew to look for him.

Nebula rolled her eyes. "Pardon me that I don't jump for joy at that information," she said flatly.

"I would think that's out of character for you anyway, princes," Tony replied. "So, I just looked this over and if I'm correct, and I usually am…" he turned to Nebula and got another eye roll. "We should be back to Earth in just a few hours. And that, my dear, is home," he pointed.

"Great," she replied sarcastically and turned on her heel to exit the room leaving Tony alone once more.

Tony was still feeling guilty, of course, but it was a relief that someone was still waiting for him back on Earth. And yes, Fury, Happy, Rhodey, and Pepper all had access to his equipment, but Sharon would be the only one that would be able to get the signal on a range far enough to reach him.

He blew out a sigh of relief and then moved to get back into the frame of mind he needed to be in when he got to his home planet.

He had no reason to believe that Nebula wouldn't turn on him the second they landed, so Tony knew he would need a back-up plan. He also had no reason to think she would turn on him. He was conflicted because so far the woman had been truthful, if not totally annoyed by him.

Tony sat down and closed his eyes. He thought about what Strange had said. Only one chance to beat Thanos in millions and millions of scenarios and clearly, they had found one that wasn't the winner.

The idea that he'd failed…He'd failed everyone…it was a lump in his throat and a pressure in the center of his chest. He heard Peter's voice and Pepper's and he really thought he'd be sick again.

What or who would he find when he got back to New York? He had a pretty good idea that it was going to be chaos – people would be losing their minds with fear and grief that their families and friends had up and disappeared.

Tony's stomach rolled again and he sat down on the cold floor and eventually he was prone, staring up on the ceiling. He closed his eyes and imagined New York. The streets would be filled with mourning and sadness. And confusion. So much confusion. How would he even begin to explain to the people of the world what had happened on Titan? Tony was having a hard enough time accepting it himself.

He wanted to believe that there was some way that it could all be reversed and things put back the way they should be. He'd do just about anything to get to that point. But Tony didn't even know where to begin. He didn't know where Thanos had gone and even if they found him, would he change things – could he? Tony shook his head as he forced himself to sit up. He rubbed his hands over his face and tried to think. There had to be some way to fix things. He just needed to figure it out.

…

Sharon awoke with a start and for a moment just blinked and tried to remember where she was. It hit her a second later that she was on Tony's couch – the one he kept for power naps, should the need ever arise. She glanced at the clock on the wall – it was two in the morning. She was the only one still down in the lab. Happy had managed to shoo everyone else off to bed while Sharon would be there in case anything else came through.

Sharon knew it was a long shot that they would hear anything else, but she wanted – no needed – to be there if Tony came through again. She was drifting back to sleep when a familiar voice came through. Sharon was sure she was dreaming as Steve's voice spoke to the room. She was enjoying the "dream" when FRIDAY called her name a few times.

"Agent Carter, would you wish to reply to Captain Rogers?" FRIDAY asked.

Sharon sat up quickly. "What?"

"Would you like to reply to Captain Rogers?"

"Please replay his message," Sharon asked as she scrambled to the desk.

" _This is Captain Steve Rogers. I am sending this message to find out if there is anyone at headquarters receiving transmissions. If so…"_

"Whatever channel, FRIDAY, open it. I want to send one back, please," Sharon said desperately.

"Ready when you are, Sharon," FRIDAY told her.

Sharon took a deep breath and tried to decide what she would say. She was overwhelmed with the fact that Steve was alive and all she wanted was to be wherever he was at the moment.

But she would need to keep it professional. She couldn't profess her undying love for the man because she had no idea who might intercept the message.

"Captain Rogers," she began, trying not to sound breathless and desperate. "This is Agent Carter and I _am_ receiving your messages," she finished by sending the GPS coordinates of the last location they'd been together so he would know it was really her and then she sat down and waited again.

…

In Wakanda, Steve was getting ready to leave Shuri's lab. He'd been disappointed, but not surprised that no one had heard his message, but perhaps someone would be able to reply in the morning. Steve's hand was at the door when her voice came through, loud and clear.

" _This is Agent Carter…_ "

He listened to the message half a dozen times and one of the knots in his stomach unraveled. She was alive and safe in the Avengers facility. Not only were they going to see one another again, Sharon could help round up anyone that was left in New York and could join him in Wakanda.

The two of them exchanged messages for a while and for a few minutes, Steve forgot everything was as terrible as it was.

…

Author's Note: Let me know what you thought! Thank you in advance!


	6. Chapter 6

Infinity

Chapter 6

But in the bright light of day, it wasn't as easy to lie to himself about their current situation now that he'd talked to Sharon. Sure, it was a complete relief that she was there, but she was also responsible for Happy Hogan and Pepper Potts as well as Peter Parker's aunt May and they'd stumbled upon Peter's best friend and his whole family had disappeared. Steve also learned that the kid had gone against orders from Tony and had gone on the ship into space with him.

Steve had wanted to bring Sharon directly to Wakanda, he wanted to bring her close to him, but now, there were more people involved and he felt guilty for being so selfish.

He'd been up all night, messaging back and forth with Sharon, and now he was pacing the lab trying to come up with a workable solution.

Bruce Banner was the first person in the lab that morning and he watched Steve for a minute before he said anything.

"Cap, are you all right?" 

Steve finally realized he wasn't alone any longer.

"Dr. Banner…"

"I think you can call me Bruce, Steve," he said. "Are you okay, though? Have you been here all night?"

"I waited a while to see if anyone would respond to the message I'd sent and when I was leaving, I got one in return," he said.

Bruce's eyes lit up and he smiled. "That's great!" he said and waited, but Steve didn't cheer up. "Not great? Who responded? What did they say?"

"Sharon Carter received and replied to my message," Steve told him.

"Is she okay?" Bruce asked. He didn't know much about Sharon, but he knew shew as Tony's goddaughter and Steve's girlfriend.

"As well as could be expected," Steve said flatly. "She's obviously in New York at the facility, but she said New York is the same chaos we've seen on the news all over the world. She has Pepper, Happy Hogan and Parker's aunt and friend with her. She's looking after everyone the best she can. Parker's friend is good with tech and helped her send the message to space. I guess that's how we were able to intercept the message from Tony."

Bruce nodded. "I take it she hasn't received anything more from Tony?"

"No. And even though it came through in pieces to us, she got a bit more because FRIDAY was able to put it together."

"Does she know who the second person is? Strange or the kid?" Bruce said.

"Negative. But she did say that based on the signal, FRIDAY expect whatever ship Stark is on to arrive into Earth's atmosphere in the next 24 to 36 hours," Steve said.

"So are we going there? To New York? Or are we going to bring them here to us? Don't you think we should all be together? And has she spoken to Barton or that Ant guy?"

"She couldn't reach either of them," Steve said grimly.

"But we should all be together, right? Whether it's here or there, wherever, we should all be together," Bruce said.

Natasha had walked in at that moment and clicked her tongue at the man's statement.

Bruce looked to her and gave her a pleading look. "I'm sorry, Nat," he said sincerely. "I-I couldn't. He'd taken over and he was angrier than I'd ever known him to be," he said, trying to explain his disappearance from Sokovia two years prior.

She took a sip from the coffee cup she was holding, but said nothing.

Steve was left in the uncomfortable position between them. He didn't need the remaining team to be fighting amongst themselves, but he also wanted no part of their relationship's issues. He really had no time for the additional drama and honestly, he was surprised because Natasha usually wasn't like that.

He looked at the both of them, in turn, and both were quiet.

"I know the both of you are going to need to sort you…things…out. I _do_ know that," Steve said. "But I am going to ask you both to table it; to call a truce. We need all hands on deck if we are going to make things right again. I know it's a lot to ask and I really don't want to have to ask it, but please, could you do it for me? For the team?"

He felt like a hippocrite. He and Tony had fallen out and broken up the team. But that was different, he told himself. He and Tony weren't having a lover's spat; he and Tony had chosen opposing sides on a major issue that affected all of them. And when it really mattered, the two of them had come together. That's all he was asking that Natasha and Bruce to do and Steve hoped that they would be able to agree on that.

Steve was silent as he watched the two of them. Bruce fidgeted with his glasses and Natasha stared at her coffee in the cup.

"Will you both do that for me?" he asked again. "For the Avengers? For our fallen Avengers?"

"Y-yes," Bruce said.

"Of course," Natasha replied.

"Thank you," Steve told them, but he didn't feel any bit of relief.

"So, do we bring them here or do we go there? Or do we all just stay put?" Nat asked.

"I know Bruce thinks we should all be together, somewhere. What do you think?" Nat asked.

"Sharon is at HQ," Steve said.

"She's the reason we caught the bit from Tony. She and one of the Spider-kid's friends used FRIDAY to send him a message," Bruce explained.

Nat nodded. "So Sharon and a teenager?" she asked.

"And Happy, Pepper, and May Parker," Steve told her.

"Peter Parker's aunt?" Nat asked.

"Sharon told me she knows he's Spider-man," Steve explained. "And it's been confirmed that Peter went against Tony's directions and stowed away on that spaceship. He ended up wherever Tony and Dr. Strange had. And they ran into Thanos before he came here because Strange had the Time Stone, as Banner told us, and now he doesn't…"

"Who is coming back with Tony?" she asked as she reviewed the information she'd just been given.

"Unknown at this time," Steve told her.

She nodded and drank more of her coffee from her cup. "What a mess," she said.

"Yeah…" Steve replied slowly.

An hour later, Steve, with Natasha and Bruce, met Rhodey, Rocket, and Thor in the throne room where Shuri sat with Okoye and Queen Ramonda.

"We received a message from the Avengers HQ last night," Steve said. "We would like to bring them here, Your Highnesses."

"Captain, who are we speaking of?" Queen Ramonda asked.

"Sharon Carter, and four others that she is looking after," Steve replied.

"Sharon? Your…?" Shuri smiled.

Steve's face behind his beard blushed. "Yes, Sharon is my fiancé," he said.

"Of course, they _must_ come," Queen Ramonda said, looking between Okoye and Shuri. "Do you agree?" she asked Shuri.

"Yes, mama," Shuri said. "We will need everyone available to continue the plan to get the gauntlet," Shuri said. "Because without the gauntlet, we don't have a chance in reversing its effects."

Both Shuri and Queen Ramonda looked at Steve and nodded.

"Use whatever resources you need to get them here safely and quickly," Queen Ramonda said.

"Thank you, Your Highnesses. I appreciate this very much," Steve said. He nodded in a way he hoped was both grateful and respectful and he and then directed the group to follow him out of the room.

"Shuri, you trust that man?" Queen Ramonda asked when the group had one.

"I do," Shuri nodded. "Because T'challa does," Shuri said.

Queen Ramonda nodded in approval.

…

"Steve said we're going to Wakanda as soon as we can possibly get ready," Sharon said to her group.

It was now bright and early in New York as well and the bleary-eyed people just stared at her.

"I've never even heard of Wakanda," May said. "Maybe?" she shrugged.

"You know, King T'challa is from Wakanda. His father was assassinated a couple of years ago in Germany at the world conference," Ned said. He and Peter had made sure the both of them were as educated as possible on all the Avengers and all the folks involved in the airport battle.

May still looked slightly confused, but she nodded so they could move on.

"We're going to leave New York?" Happy asked. "Who will watch HQ?"

"We'll leave the usual protocol in place, Happy. It's fine," Sharon said. "Well, it's not _fine_ , but we have to make the best of it."

"It's a twelve hour flight," Happy said.

"You need to deal," Sharon said back.

"But Tony's coming. Don't we need to wait for him?" Pepper chimed in. "What if he's hurt and there's no one here to help him?"

"We could wait here," Happy said.

"I don't know if separating is a good idea," Sharon said. "And Steve – Captain Rogers – said we should _all_ go. He wanted to have us all together."

"And Tony said that there were two coming back – Peter could be coming with him," May said.

"We'll figure it out," Sharon said. "Steve is in Wakanda. He said it was safe. He's there with Thor, Banner, Rhodey, and Romanoff. We need to regroup. We have to…"

"Agent Carter, your quinjet will be ready for takeoff within the hour," FRIDAY announced.

"Thank you, FRIDAY," Sharon said. "Steve said that he felt we would be safer with everyone. And he through our resources would be better leveraged in Wakanda. You all need to come along with me," Sharon told them.

She realized she wasn't making a compelling case and she shook her head.

"Okay, fine. You all can do what you'd like, but I'm going to Wakanda to help the Avengers. And when Tony lands, we can tell him to come to Wakanda, too. And if anyone can fix this, it's them," Sharon said.

Happy didn't look happy, but he nodded. "Fine. Wheels up in an hour," he said. "Let's go find you some clothes to take with us, kid," he said to Ned and indicated for him to follow.

"I'll take May," Pepper nodded. "We'll get packed, too."

A moment later, Sharon was alone in the lab again. She turned away to look at something on a computer screen and jumped a mile when someone started pounding on the glass door behind her.

Whipping around, she found a familiar face and she quickly moved to open the door to allow the person entry into the room.

"Clint! I've been trying to get a hold of you for hours. No tracker…"

"What the hell is going on, Sharon? My entire family is gone!" he said in a frenzied way. "My family…"

"C'mon," Sharon said, leading him over to the couch. "You're going to want to sit for this…"

Clint Barton stayed silent for the entirety of Sharon's explanation. He listened thoughtfully and nodded. But when she was done, he stood from the couch and moved to a digital storage tower as tall as he was and sent it to the ground.

"Clint…"

"You're telling me some jag-of client dictator decided that my family had to go, but I have to be left behind? No…" he shook his head.

The anger and grief combined with the exhaustion had driven him crazy. He was pacing back and forth, clenching his fists and Clint's face was red.

"We're leaving for Wakanda in half an hour now. Steve's there, so is Nat, Thor, and Banner. We're going to figure this out," Sharon said as calmly as possible.

"How are you being so effing calm, Share?" he asked.

Sharon sighed and shrugged one shoulder. "I'm afraid to call home because I don't know what I'll find. And I knew they went to Wakanda after they'd been here, but I was too afraid to send a message. If Steve hadn't…well, I'm just wearing my panic on the inside because the people I'm here with…Spider-man's aunt and friend…have no experience with all this. Inside, I'm freaking out. At this point, I'm listening to Steve because I have _no_ idea what I'm doing."

Clint pulled Amanda in for a hug and they stood there for a minute.

When they stepped back, they regrouped and nodded.

"Let's get ready to leave for Wakanda," Clint said.

"Let's go," Sharon said.

She logged out of the computer and the two left the lab.

…

Author's Note: Whoa! A second update in as many days! Yay! You know what to do…


	7. Chapter 7

Infinity

Chapter 7

Steve Rogers checked the location of the transponder beacon for the tenth time in thirty minutes. While he knew the quinjet was moving at the proper pace across the ocean toward the African continent and Wakanda, he wished they were there already.

Steve was alone; he had been for a couple of hours. Shuri had been in a while ago and tried to convince him to sleep or eat, but he shrugged her off. He was better off alone right now.

Steve did really appreciate Shuri's concern, but there really wouldn't be anything to help him then and there. Nothing would ease him, even slightly, until he had laid eyes on Sharon. He needed to have her with him.

He'd tried to lay down to relax, or maybe even sleep, earlier, but when he closed his eyes, he only saw Buck and Sam turning to dust followed by Thanos coming back to destroy what was left of Earth.

No, until he had Sharon with him, he wouldn't try to sleep anymore. He needed to know they had a safe journey and Steve could hold Sharon in his arms. Steve had no idea that he could need someone as much as he felt he needed Sharon. And truthfully, it wasn't until he'd heard her voice hours ago that he realized it. Without really considering it, he'd been mourning Sharon, too, because it only made sense. Anyone and everyone he'd ever gotten close to was always taken from him.

And all of them – all of the Avengers – were just the same. Tony's parents. Thor's entire family and planet. Banner's whole life. None of them could hold on to anyone.

"Steve," Nat's voice broke him from his troubled thoughts.

It was sharp and it went straight through him. He stood to his full height to look at her.

"You shouldn't be in here moping all by yourself."

"I'm not moping, I don't think," Steve said. "Just waiting for Sharon and the others."

"Come join the rest of us."

"I am better off alone," Steve replied.

"Do you think that pacing is going to make the quinjet move faster? Because I think you'll just wear a tread into the floor," Nat said. "At least come eat something; you need to eat. Sharon would want you be taking care of yourself, Steve."

Steve sighed. He wasn't going to win this; he'd know Natasha too long to know she wasn't about to give up so easily.

"It's going to be another two hours. You can come keep me from putting a muzzle on the raccoon. He and Thor are driving me crazy."

"Have you figured out anything about the talking raccoon? Because…"

Natasha shook her head. "No. And I'm not totally sure what I want to," she said, squinting at the thought. "And Thor keeps calling him a rabbit still."

This finally made Steve chuckle. "I guess it would be safe to assume there were no raccoons on Asgard," Steve said.

"Come on," Nat said.

"I know this is all to keep an eye on me." 

Natasha nodded. "Yes. Entirely. I don't care how the others see you, _I_ know you're the least predictable of all of us. Especially now."

"Probably because I'm three times as old as you."

"Thor is 1,500 years old. Just come with me."

Steve decided to give in at this point. Being alone with his thoughts wasn't actually helping. He nodded his acquiescence and followed Natasha from the room.

…

"FRIDAY, do you have any updates on Tony?" Sharon asked. She was alone in the cockpit of the quinjet that they'd taken. Clint had been with her originally, but he was making her crazy, so she asked that he go talk to May and Pepper for a while to make sure they were comfortable.

"Sharon, it appears that the ship in question is just outside Earth's atmosphere," FRIDAY's voice told her.

Sharon nodded. This would be good. Tony could land in New York, get the medical attention he very likely needed, and then come over in another quinjet.

"Has he been able to access you?" Sharon said.

"No, Mr. Stark has not attempted access to my mainframe since his suit was destroyed," FRIDAY told her.

"Could he, though? Is that something he _could_ do?" Sharon asked and then waited for FRIDAY to answer her.

"Mr. Stark has put in several fail-safes to keep me protected from unauthorized access. _He_ would be able to get around the firewalls but he might not have felt comfortable accessing my systems from the vessel on which he's traveling. I was able to determine that the vessel is alien in nature."

"How…"

"Based on the message received from Mr. Stark," FRIDAY said.

"His location – is he on the way to New York? Is he on target for home?" Sharon asked.

"One moment, please, while I calculate his approximate location," FRIDAY said.

Sharon reviewed her controls and screens while she waited for FRIDAY's answer. They were making excellent time as they headed for Wakanda. But she wished they were already there.

"Sharon, Mr. Stark's vessel is on course for Idaho," FRIDAY said.

"Idaho?" Sharon repeated.

"He still has the opportunity to correct his current trajectory. He can still re-route to the facility in New York. He would not need to modify the course my much," FRIDAY said.

Sharon blew out a long breath. "So, would it be feasible for you to send Tony a message? To direct him to take a slightly altered path?"

"I will attempt to do something, but if he doesn't have something to receive it on, it'll bounce through space," FRIDAY said. "Please confirm."

Sharon understood what the AI was saying, but she had no idea if it would be worth it to send it. Should she bother? And she had no one to ask for advice.

"Sharon? Agent Carter? Should I attempt to send a message?" FRIDAY asked expectantly.

"Um, yes. What the hell? Please try to send something. Maybe just the coordinates he could use to correct the path?"

"On it," FRIDAY replied.

In the short time she's had to consider it, he knew one of three things was going to happen. One: Tony would receive the message and adjust and then he'd land safely in New York. Two: Tony _wouldn't_ get the message but some other alien life form would and Sharon basically invited them to Earth to finish what Thanos had started. Or Three: absolutely nothing.

Sharon was lost in her thoughts when Pepper joined her in the cockpit.

"Sharon, are you okay?" Pepper asked.

"Oh," Sharon said in a surprised voice. We have about an hour more," she added after she'd checked some information. "How are you doing?"

"I'm okay for now," she said as she sat in the empty co-pilot's chair. "Have you slept at all yet? I think you should rest while you can. I at least had a tranquilizer and was out for a few hours," she told Sharon.

"I'll sleep when we land in Wakanda and I know that Tony had a safe landing as well," she said.

Pepper looked down at her engagement ring and spun it around her finger a few times. "I can't believe he got on that damned ship."

"You can't?" Sharon replied.

"I guess…I guess I thought that maybe after everything, I wouldn't come second to saving the world. And then I realize how big of a selfish asshole that makes me. I'm just so mad."

Sharon nodded. "I get it, I do. The men we love will drop anything they're doing to make sure the world is okay. Steve left for Wakanda to try to protect Vision and the Mind Stone and I was mad because he'd left without me. Oh, poor me," Sharon said. "We'll just be selfish assholes together."

"Where did you all go? When you left before?" Pepper asked to change the subject.

"Well, first Steve and I went to my place in Michigan, but we were only there for a couple days. We reconnected with the group and moved around a lot - somedays we'd only be in a location for a few hours. So many shitty hotels. We camped some. But laying low isn't easy for Steve, even in his disguise with a beard and longer hair. He still stands out in a crowd," Sharon said.

Pepper nodded.

"Do you ever wish you could go back?" Pepper asked.

"To a specific time and place or just in general so you could start all over?"

"Either. Both. I don't know," Pepper said, still looking down at the sparkling diamond engagement ring on her left hand. "I…"

"Pepper, I know there is not any universe or any time, any iteration, that you don't love Tony Stark. Because you fell in love with him before he was Iron Man."

"He's always been Iron Man. Suit or no suit."

Sharon understood. "Yes. Steve Rogers has always been the same person, too. The serum just gave him the chance to do what he was destined to do; what he'd always done – fight for anyone that needed him."

Pepper looked up, her eyes shiny with unshed tears. "I just want him to find some peace. Stress and recurring nightmares after the battle in New York. And then Killian and AIM. Ultron. The Accords. The fight with Captain Rogers. Now…now there's this! Half the people in the world are gone! I know he went up there on that ship to try and stop it from happening, but obviously something bad happened because Thanos got the Time Stone from Doctor Strange. What state will Tony be in when he comes back? And who, or what, is coming back with him?"

Sharon listened to Pepper without interrupting her. She knew most of this had been on Pepper's mind for a long time. Many years, actually. But she had still agreed to marry Tony because not matter what, Pepper loved him. And so did Sharon.

"It's only going to keep getting harder," Sharon said. "Unfortunately, even if we get Tony back and reverse what Thanos did, something else is going to come along. It always does and it always will.

"Of course, we'll stick it out until the end," Pepper said quietly. "But I want him to be honest with me. I don't just want to hear what he thinks I should. Tony Stark has always been an open book, except for when it comes to telling me," Pepper said.

"Well, they might have put something to that effect in the Avengers code somewhere," Sharon said. "You have to know he keeps the details to a minimum to keep you safe. I did the same thing when I was in SHIELD; I didn't, or rather, couldn't tell Tony stuff."

Pepper still said nothing.

"Okay, well, you _know_ Tony loves you. More than anything. Even more than he loves himself. He would move Heaven and Earth to make you happy and to keep you safe. And you could put money on the fact that _you_ were what was on his mind as he followed that ship. Well, you and Spider-Man."

Pepper was still quiet.

"It's okay to freak out, though. I can make sure you get another tranquilizer," Sharon said and Pepper finally smiled and laughed.

"See? Somehow things will be okay."

"Sharon, I think…I think I'm pregnant," Pepper finally blurted out.

Sharon opened and closed her mouth a couple of times. She was trying to find the best words to use to reply. Her mind was mush as she was thinking of all the ramifications. She wanted to be happy, but…

"And, he was talking, before all of this, that he'd had this dream and I _was_ pregnant. And I wasn't. I mean, I sure as hell thought I couldn't be at the time. But now…Sharon, I'm am so sorry to just spring this on you, but…"

"No, no," Sharon jumped in. "No, I'm glad you told me. But how could you be so certain two days ago, but now… 

"Well, I realized just how late I am. I told myself that it just couldn't be true, but…I don't know, you know?"

"Did you take a test yet?" Sharon asked.

"I threw a couple tests in my bag when I was packing, but I've been too freaked out to use them, you know? What if I'm actually pregnant?" she asked.

"Okay, well…everything is going to be…"

"You have no idea if things are going to be okay, Sharon. But I _do_ appreciate that you are trying to tell me that it will be. Especially in your confident voice. We both know that everything is unknown."

"Okay, yes, but who wants to hear _'everything sucks and life isn't worth living',_ " Sharon said. "We're going to make things be okay. I don't know if things will be the same as we thought, but things will be some form of okay. I do promise you that."

Sharon said it as confidently as possible, but she didn't believe it either. But maybe if she said it enough, maybe she'd start to think it was true.

"We're going to be landing in about fifteen, so you and the others should get buckled back in. When we land, we'll get you checked out. Okay?"

Pepper nodded and stood.

"Thank you, Sharon," she said before leaving Sharon alone in the cockpit once more.

Sharon shook her head. What would they do? They had no idea how Tony would be when he got back and no idea if they could actually reverse what Thanos had done. Sharon hoped that there wouldn't be anything else to compound their already heavy problems.

She turned her focus to the controls of the quinjet. For the next fourteen minutes, lading them safely in Wakanda was her only task.

…

A/N: let me know what you thought!

I also just wanted to say thank you to all my readers and an extra BIG thank you for all of your wonderfully kind words and support while I'm working on this story!


	8. Chapter 8

Infinity

Chapter 8

He stood at a distance and watched as Sharon brought the quinjet down. It was a quiet landing and at his insistence, he was the only person waiting for the travelers. Steve would take them all up to the palace and they could get settled in.

But Steve needed to see Sharon and despite the exhaustion he felt, Steve stood ramrod straight and waited for the door to open.

The quinjet's side door opened a moment later and Steve saw Clint Barton exit first. He nodded to Steve before turning around to help Pepper Potts and then a dark-haired woman out onto the solid ground.

Next came a teenager – he would be Peter Parker's friend – followed finally by Sharon arguing with Happy Hogan. Steve couldn't help but smile as she fought with the man.

"Well, when _you_ learn to fly, you can be in charge of flying the quinjet, Hap," Sharon said.

"I hate flying," Happy's voice carried across the space.

Steve decided this was his moment and he began walking toward Clint and the kid and the two ladies.

"It's good to see you, Clint. Sharon didn't tell me you were coming…" Steve trailed off. He could read the man's face. "All of them?" Steve asked.

Clint only gave him a curt nod.

"We're going to do everything we can. You're in the right place," Steve said as he tried to be as reassuring as possible.

Happy had caught up with them and he reached out to shake Steve's hand.

"Good to see you, Captain Rogers," Happy said.

Steve nodded. "You as well, Mr. Hogan. Thank you for keeping things running as smoothly as possible in light of the circumstances."

"You know Pepper…" Happy said.

Steve nodded and then was pulled into a hug by Pepper. Steve hugged her in return until she pulled away and stepped back.

"This is Mrs. May Potter, Peter Parker's aunt," Happy said. "Mrs. Parker, this is Captain Steve Rogers…"

"…Captain America…" Ned said in an awestruck voice as he looked at Steve.

Steve managed a small smile at Ned, but he turned to shake May's hand. "It's very nice to meet you, ma'am," Steve said.

"Yes, it's nice to meet you as well. I do wish it were under better circumstances," May said.

Steve nodded, then turned to Ned. "And you – you're Ned," he said.

"You – you know my name?" Ned asked.

Steve nodded. "Thank you for getting the message out there, Ned," Steve said. "I can't even pretend that I know anything about it, but I _do_ very much appreciate it. You did very good work, Ned."

"Th-thank you, Captain America," Ned said.

"You don't need to call me Captain America. You can call me Steve."

Ned was shaking his head that he couldn't call him Steve.

Steve sighed, ever so slightly. "Okay, you can call me Cap then. Nice to meet you, Ned."

Steve was happy that the group of them had arrived safe and sound, but the person he needed to talk to was bringing up the rear. She'd put a duffle bag strap over her shoulder and she was closing up the quinjet. He insisted on taking the bag from Pepper, who was still right next to him, and Steve pointed them up toward the palace.

"I will follow in a minute," Steve told Happy. "Natasha is up at the top of the hall and she'll escort you inside," he told them.

Happy nodded, and sighed up at the hill that he was going to have to climb. He was not pleased with the forthcoming ascent, but he followed behind the rest of the group up anyway.

Sharon moved toward Steve when the group had all turned away and both of them set the bags down so they could wrap their arms around one another.

Steve pulled her to him in a tight embrace. "I missed you," he said into her hair.

"I missed you, too," Sharon replied.

"You're really here?" Steve asked, as if he still didn't believe she was actually there with him.

Sharon chuckled and pulled back to look up at Steve's face. "I'm really here, Steve. I still can't believe this has all happened, but I _am_ here with you."

Steve didn't want to let her go; he was perfectly fine staying in the field holding her. He felt so much better, just being there with her. But Steve released her from his arms and she gave him a quick kiss as he stooped to pick up both bags. He smiled at her when he stood up and threw the both of them over his shoulder.

"That might be the first real breath I've taken in a couple days," Steve said.

"Me, too," Sharon said. "And I had no idea that I'd been holding it in," she said. "What the hell is going on?"

"I wish I had an answer for you," Steve said. "Let's go inside; you can get situated and rest and then I'll introduce you to Queen Ramonda and the Princess, Shuri," he said as he started to move forward.

"Steve," Sharon stopped him. Her anxious tone caught him by surprise and he turned on his heel to look at her. Steve tried to read her expression.

"What else is wrong? Are you okay?" Steve asked. "Is it your family?"

Sharon shook her head. "I've been too scared to even contact them to see what happened there. But, it's not me. It's Pepper." 

"Pepper?" What's wrong with Pepper?" he asked.

"She thinks she could be pregnant," Sharon told him. "And we don't know for certain yet. But if she is, we don't know what we're going to get when Tony gets home."

Steve was quiet. He'd been reduced to contemplative silence several times in the last several days and he'd thought he'd prepared himself for anything else that could come their way, he was wrong.

"Pepper just told me this about half an hour ago and I probably shouldn't have told you but, I don't know protocol for this. Not that you do either, but…" she babbled anxiously.

"But we can muddle through together," Steve said.

"I'm so sorry about Bucky and Sam," Sharon told him.

Steve nodded slowly a couple of times. "Me, too."

"And everyone. Half the world! And I couldn't bring myself to dial the damn phone number to see who answered…"

Steve put the bags down again and pulled Sharon into a tight hug once more. They stood like that in the middle of the field, in silence, for a long time.

"What will we do if Pepper is pregnant with Tony's baby and he comes back and he's more…you know…?" Sharon said. "Pepper has been on her last rope with him for a long time and…is there something in the superhero manual about what we should do?" Sharon asked.

"There's a manual?" Steve smiled slightly at her. "I've been making it all up as I went all this time," he told her.

"Damn," Sharon returned his smirk. "I was hoping you'd always known and were just keeping mum."

Movement at the top of the hill behind Steve drew Sharon's gaze and she recognized who it was immediately.

"Do I have to get the hose?!" Nat called down to him as loudly as possible so it echoed all around them.

Steve sighed and shook his head and Sharon waved up to her.

"We'll be right up!" Sharon called up.

Sharon could tell the woman above them was laughing as he backed away from the top of the hill once more.

"Shall we?" Steve said as he picked up the two bags.

"Is it going to be terribly rude to sleep after we meet the Queen and the princess?" Sharon said.

"Shuri and Queen Ramonda will be understanding."

"What about you? Are you going to be upset if I crash for a little while?"

They were almost to the top of the hill and Steve turned to look at Sharon.

"I'm not going to be upset, because I'm going to go with you. I haven't been sleeping…"

"I know," she said. "I can tell by looking at your eyes. They get shiny when you aren't feeling well."

"They do?" Steve asked. He was actually fascinated by this fact. "You can really tell that?"

"Yes, I can," Sharon said. "And even if that wasn't a tell, I know you well enough to know that you're blaming yourself for all this. Well, actually, most would probably reason that out," she said. "You're Captain America after all."

"I missed you," Steve said as they reached the crest of the hill. Steve leaned and kissed Sharon's cheek.

"Get a room," Natasha said in a monotone voice to tease them.

"It's good to see you, too, Nat," Sharon said in the same tone.

Both women smiled and moved to hug one another.

"Good flight, I hope," Natasha said when they had released one another.

"As best as it could be. Not much other traffic right now. Has any country or government made any announcements, yet?" Sharon asked.

"Not as far as I know," Nat said. "We've been trying to monitor everything as best we can, but what would they even say?" she added as the three of them started to walk towards the palace.

"Touche," Sharon said. "The palace is beautiful. The whole country is beautiful."

"It really is. It's too bad we aren't here under better circumstances; we might actually get to enjoy it," Natasha said. "Don't be offended, but I'm going to check on Clint. I'm worried about him and I'm still having an issue wrapping my head around the fact that Laura and the kids are gone. I was hoping they'd been spared."

"I know," Sharon said. "Me, too."

"And we are not offended," Steve added.

Nat nodded once and picked up her pace to move to the palace ahead of them.

"If you would have told me before I'd joined the Army and took the serum, that I'd one, be alive in 2018, and two, that half of what has happened in the last few years would happen, I would have just laughed in your face," Steve said. "Superheroes, aliens, gods from other planets and realms, robots…all the stuff from comic books and fairytales."

"And yet, it was all happening then. The Red Skull had already had the Tesseract," Sharon said.

The two of them reached the front of the palace and the guards stepped aside to let them pass through the front doors.

"Am I presentable to meet the royal family? I feel like I should get cleaned up or comb my hair or something…" Sharon muttered.

"You're beautiful."

"You're biased," Sharon retorted.

"You look wonderful. A little tired, but I do think they will understand," Steve said.

He led her through the halls and around a corner, they stopped. There were more guards standing in front of a pair of ornate double doors.

"Shall we?" Steve asked.

"I suppose we shall," Sharon said, more nervous as the seconds passed.

Steve nodded and the guards in front of them opened the doors to a sprawling, bright room that was full of commotion until the two of them entered. Silence was all around them as all eyes were upon them.

"Sharon Carter, yes?" Shuri moved to them. "I am Shuri."

"Shuri is the Princess of Wakanda," Steve said, hoping to interrupt whatever train of thought Shuri had.

"It is very nice to meet you, your highness," Sharon said.

"Oh, no, none of that nonsense," Shuri said. "Just Shuri. And I have to say, I'm glad you're here. Our Captain thought of little else without you here," Shuri said to Steve's embarrassment.

Shuri smiled widely; she was pleased at the blush showing over the top of his beard and the semi-panicked look for the briefest of moments. "I suppose I'll always enjoy teasing him. He reminds me so much of my brother. I can't wait to bother them at the same time," she smiled.

"Shuri," a stronger voice said from the other side of the room.

"Oh, please come with me and meet my mother," Shuri said.

She led Sharon and Steve to Queen Ramonda and Okoye, who stood next to the throne.

"Mama, this is Sharon Carter, Captain Rogers' fiancée," Shuri said to the queen. "Sharon, my mother, Queen Ramonda of Wakanda. And this is Okoye, the leader of the Dora Milaje and one of T'Challa's closest friends and allies."

"Your Highness, thank you for welcoming us into your country," Sharon said. "It is an honor to meet all of you."

"We are happy to have the united group, what remains of it, here," Queen Ramonda said.

"I am certain Steve and the others have said this, but we are going to do everything we can to reverse Thanos' actions," Sharon said.

"Your Captain Rogers can be quite convincing, Miss Carter, and I do believe that you will accomplish whatever you intend to do," the queen said. "Our resources will be at your disposal. Now," the queen said, standing. "We will eat. And then we will all get some much needed rest. Tomorrow we will all be hard at work."

The crowd began talking once more and Sharon glanced over to see a raccoon talking to Thor. She shook her head and followed Steve away from the throne and soon the room was filled with food and drink.

After their meal, Sharon and Steve were sitting at a table with Natasha, Shuri, and Clint. Rhodey crossed the room and tapped Sharon on the shoulder. He pulled her into a hug when she stood.

"I'm glad to see you're okay, kid," Rhodey said.

"Same here. You feeling okay?"

"You mean my legs and spine? Yeah, I'm holding up. How were things at the facility when you left?"

"No one had begun storming the castle walls trying to loot it, but when we went into the city to see Wong – he works with Doctor Strange – it's already a mess."

"Pepper is – she's looking – I mean, Tony is…" Rhodey said. "You know."

Sharon nodded. "Yeah. Pepper is dealing with a lot right now. But I see she's eating, so, that's good."

"Happy is making her," Rhodey smirked.

"Good, he needs to be in charge of something. By the way…talking raccoon?"

"Don't ask," Rhodey said. "How'd you wind up with Parker's aunt and the kid?"

He, of course, knew of the both of them because Tony hadn't been able to shut up about Peter Parker for a long while.

"Well, we wanted to check on May while we were in the city. We found Ned by accident."

Rhodey nodded. "And Tony didn't indicate who was coming back with him?"

"Nope. We only got the one message back from him. Could be Peter or could be Doctor Strange."

"Who, exactly, is Doctor Strange? Is that his real name?"

"Yes, he's…"

"A wizard," Thor said as he joined their table. He gave Sharon his most charming smile, guaranteed to make women swoon, but Sharon did not swoon. "Thor, god of thunder, blah, blah, blah…" he held out his hand as he introduced himself.

Sharon shook it, but was still not acting impressed. "Sharon Carter. And Doctor Strange is a sorcerer…"

"Wizard," Thor corrected her.

Steve looked at Sharon whose eyebrow twitched slightly.

"We're talking pretty much the same thing," Rhodey jumped in. He'd known Sharon a long time, too. And she didn't like to be corrected or interrupted.

"He's also headquartered in New York. Big, old house on Bleecker. Sanctum Santorum. Doctor Strange is a master of the mystical arts and he was chosen as the guardian of the Eye of Agamotto…aka…the time stone."

Thor snorted. "Clearly that wasn't a good plan."

The table was silent.

"Sorry," Thor offered sheepishly.

"By the way, Doctor Erik Selvig and a Darcy asked me to tell you to keep yourself safe," Sharon said.

"They did?" Thor asked. "What about Jane? Is she okay?"

"She's fine, but I'd rather not repeat Jane's message in this company," Sharon said.

"That's fair," Thor said, nodding.

"So, we need the time stone," Rhodey said. "To reverse the…uh…the snap, I guess," he said.

"We need all of them," Steve said. "All of them should be destroyed."

Sharon nodded while she yawned. "Oh, excuse me."

"It is getting late," Steve said. "We can start tomorrow morning with our official game plan. I'll show you to our room," Steve said back to her while he started to stand.

Sharon lightly pushed him back into his seat.

"I'm sure that someone could point me in the right direction, Steve. You can stay here. I will be fine," Sharon said.

Shuri pushed back from the table. "C'mon Sharon, I'll show you the way."

"Thank you," Sharon said, standing up.

Steve looked at her from his seat at the table. "I can…"

Sharon shook her head and bent down to kiss him lightly. "I'll be there when you get done here," she said softly. "I'm just going to take a shower and rest my eyes."

Steve was still hesitant to let her go. He didn't want her to leave his side now that she was here. And truthfully, he wanted to get some sleep, too, now that he felt like he actually could with her there. He also knew that all the eyes were on them and that made him very uncomfortable.

"I'll see you later," Sharon said.

"Okay, I'll see you later," Steve repeated back.

She followed Shuri to the doorway and picked up her bag on the way out. Steve's eyes followed her the whole way.

"Earth to Steve," Nat smirked and brought Steve back to reality. He realized that the conversation had moved on and he'd been thinking about Sharon and only Sharon.

"You, my friend, you've got it bad," Thor said, smiling.

"It's cute, you know."

Steve shook his head as the group laughed.

"Let's please focus on the plan? Thank you," Steve said.

…

Tony was cursing quietly to himself as he attempted to make the map on the screen work.

He'd been playing with one of the communication systems to quell the boredom he felt and had picked up a message. A message for him. He'd translated it; a language, a code that he'd written. And it told him he was _not_ headed to New York.

He had re-directed to the coordinates that he recognized then as New York, but then another message had come in. More coordinates. Now he was trying to figure out the location of the new coordinates.

Then it came to him. "Wakanda," he finally hissed. "Wakanda!"

"What are you shouting about?" Nebula said as she strode into the room.

"Well, hello there, sunshine," Tony said.

Nebula stared at him.

"We are going to Wakanda."

"What is Wakanda?"

"Wakanda – that's where my family is," Tony said.

"Great," she said sarcastically to him. "How do you know they are in this Wakanda?"

"I got a message."

"You got a message? How?"

"I picked up a message and I decoded said message and that message said to go to New York. Then a second message came through and it was the coordinates for Wakanda. And so, Wakanda is where we will go."

"So your _family_ is in Wakanda – one of my dear father's ships lands there…you don't think they'll be suspicious? If not suspicious, they'll just start shooting at us to take us right out of the sky."

"Okay – I'm all out of ideas," Tony snapped. "I'm tapped out. You got anything, princess? Because I'm open to suggestions."

"We _should_ be looking for Thanos," Nebula said. "Thanos."

"If we don't have my team, we will never make it to Thanos, okay?"

Nebula opened her mouth, but closed it without saying anything a minute later.

"You…"

"What?!" Tony snapped. "What else do you have to say to me? Because if you aren't going to say something productive or constructive, I don't want to hear it," he said.

"I don't like you," Nebula said.

"Please go find somewhere else to be for the rest of our travels," Tony said, not looking at her. "And try to make it the other end of the ship."

Nebula was furious and he could read it in her face, but he absolutely didn't care. He didn't care one little bit. But she didn't argue with him. She turned on her heel and stomped out of the room.

Tony gave her one glance and then got back to the map on the screen. "Wakanda, here we come."

…

Author's note: Voila! Y'all know what to do….

Thanks so much for SO MANY kind words on this fic, too. It means the world to me.


	9. Chapter 9

Author's Note: You all are so great! Thank you very much for your kind words. Here is the latest update!

Infinity

Chapter 9

Steve Rogers couldn't help his wide smile. He was proud as hell as he watched over Sharon sleeping while holding their son. Their son. He was a beautiful, healthy boy and that's all he could have ever hoped for.

The happy fluttering in his chest was persistent and he _never_ wanted it to stop.

There was soft knock on the door and Steve moved to open it. Bucky.

"C'mon in," Steve smiled. "But Sharon's asleep, so…"

"I'll be quiet," Bucky said, smirking at his friend. But he became totally silent as he saw the woman in the hospital bed holding the sleeping baby.

"He looks just like you," Bucky said softly.

"He's got Sharon's nose."

"Suits him," Bucky said. "Lucky he didn't get yours…"

"Gee, thanks, Buck," Steve said.

"In all seriousness…congrats, buddy," Bucky said before clapping Steve on the back. "Have you and Sharon chosen a name yet?"

Steve smiled. "James," he said.

"No…" Bucky said, smiling.

The baby in Sharon's arms started to stir and cry.

"See, he's just like you…" Steve said.

"You boys are going to be trouble, aren't you?" Sharon said sleepily.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you or the baby. I just…good job, mom," Bucky said.

"Thanks, Bucky," Sharon said. "Steve, let him hold the baby. James should get to know his godfather," Sharon told him tiredly.

Steve gingerly picked up the sleeping baby and James settled into his father's arms. Steve was a natural. He couldn't contain his goofy grin and he bent to kiss Sharon.

"I love you," he said.

"I love you," Sharon replied before yawning.

The baby in Steve's arms complained loudly to say that he felt left out.

"We love you, too," Steve said while he laughed, then pressed a kiss to his son's forehead. "Let's go see your godfather and namesake," Steve said.

He moved toward Bucky and started to lift James over.

"I don't think that's a such a good idea, Steve. You know my…and all," he lifted his left arm.

"Do you really think I'm worried that you're going to hurt him?" Steve asked. "Because I can tell you that I'm not. How about you, Sharon?"

Sharon shook her head. "Not in the slightest."

"I, um…" Bucky began, but Steve was already starting to hand James to his godfather. Seconds later, Bucky was cradling the small bundle.

"You two sure made a good-looking kid," Bucky said. "You've got some really great parents, young man. But look out, your dad is Captain America."

The baby fussed and Bucky began to panic. It had been 70 or 80 years since he'd actually held a baby.

"Okay, little man, let's go back to dad," Bucky said.

Steve reached out to accept his son back into his arms when he saw it. It was the foot first. Then his whole leg and then the other. He was powerless to stop it as his son completely disappeared. Sharon opened her mouth to scream, but she was disappearing, too. Then Bucky was gone. Soon Steve was all alone in the room, his family gone in the blink of an eye.

He awoke in a panic, throwing off all the covers as he realized he had been awoken by someone. He opened his eyes and saw he was looking into Sharon's concerned blue ones.

"Steve, what can I do…"

He kissed her deeply. He kissed her as though his life depended up on the connection.

"I needed to know this is real," Steve told her when they broke apart for air. Steve watched as her chest rose and fell rapidly to the same erratic rhythm as his own heart. Steve searched her eyes for a moment, but didn't move.

Sharon leaned in and kissed him again. It was only a short matter of time before Steve had forgotten all about the nightmare.

The following morning, Steve awoke in a much happier way. He could hear singing coming from the suite's adjoining bathroom and he rose from the bed to pull on the long forgotten sweats from the night before.

Sharon was in the shower and she smiled as she saw him enter the room through the glass shower door.

"Good morning," she said. "Captain," she added while she carefully opened one end of the shower doors so water didn't spray everywhere in the bathroom.

He kissed her and slid the shower door open more. Sharon's hand found the waistband of his sweats and pushed them down. Steve kicked them aside once they were pooled at his feet and he joined Sharon in the shower.

The two of them didn't make it down to see the others at the palace until lunchtime.

There was no discussion of Steve's nightmare.

"Well, gee, Captain, thank you for joining us," Nat said as the two of them walked into the large dining hall. All of the eyes in the room were upon them and while Steve's initial reaction was to be embarrassed, he realized he actually wasn't.

"Sometimes you need to sleep in," Sharon said.

"Right, sleep…" Rocket muttered. "Why is everyone looking at me like that? We all know they were…"

"Okay," Sharon interrupted. "So…any new news we should be aware of?"

"I checked with FRIDAY, Tony's ship is now not able to be traced," Bruce Banner said. "We…we can't find him right now."

"What?" Sharon's smile was gone, even though it had been fake.

"Does that mean…"

"I don't know for sure what it means, Steve," Bruce said.

"Usually when you can't trace a ship, its cause it went _boom_ ," Rocket said.

"Yes, but not always," Shuri said quickly. "It could have a cloaking feature. It could have hit an odd magnetic field…"

"It _could have_ crashed," Rocket said.

Pepper, who had been totally silent in her seat was now on her feet and her face was the same color of her hair.

"You!" she pointed. "You, rodent, need to shut up or I will _make_ you shut up!" Pepper shouted. "I _dare_ you to say anything else. _I dare you_ ," she said through her clenched teeth.

Rocket was silent. "Sorry, lady," he said, putting his paws up in surrender. "I…" he started before Pepper ran out of the room.

Sharon moved to follow her. She'd seen enough of Pepper's face to know it had changed from the angry red to a sickly green in a half-second. It seemed like maybe Pepper was pregnant.

"I'll find you later," Sharon said before she exited the room following Pepper.

When Steve turned back to the group, all eyes were still upon him.

"So…" Thor said. "What – what was that about?" he asked.

Steve shrugged. "I know she's not too fond of the idea of Tony's ship crashing. I can't say I'm all that excited though, either," he said. "Sharon can help Ms. Potts, though. Where is Parker's aunt and friend? And Hogan?"

"Touring the palace grounds with her majesty and the princess," Okoye told Steve. "She thought we would be better off without them."

Steve nodded. "Of course she is correct," he said. "Should we pick up where we left off last night?" Steve asked.

For the next several hours, the group mapped out their plan. Sharon and Pepper did not return to the dining room.

…

"I thought you said we would be there by now," Nebula grimaced.

"Sunshine, I would love _nothing_ more to be able to tell you we were there. But you coming in every ten minutes saying _are we there yet_ isn't helping me figure out why my calculations were wrong."

"I don't think your calculations were wrong," she said quietly.

"What?" Tony said, almost in disbelief. "What was that?"

"You weren't wrong. But we're moving more slowly than we had been. We're in _some thing's_ gravitational pull and it's slowed us down."

"There is _nothing_ around us, Nebula," he said, using her actual name for the first time. "I appreciate your attempt to make me feel better, although it makes me feel weird, too. But I did something…wrong."

"Sometimes planets put up cloaking. Mostly to hide from tyrants like Thanos. While our ship would steer _around_ it, its gravity could still be pulling us in. Especially if they have set themselves up with artificial gravity. I'm sure you know that artificial gravity generally proves to be a greater force than naturally-occurring gravity," Nebula explained.

Tony stared at her in disbelief.

"So…" Nebula said as the silence and his stare was making her uncomfortable. "So we should increase our boosters so we could get out of the range of the planet in question."

"Oh – I could kiss you right now!" Tony exclaimed

"Please restrain yourself," Nebula replied.

Tony moved to the engine and primed it. "Let's see what she's got!" he pushed a button and the ship launched forward.

"Yes!" Tony screamed. "This is….thank you!" he said sincerely.

"You're welcome," she said, a small, triumphant smile on her face.

"Hopefully, we haven't lost too much time. Wakanda, here we come!"

"Again…" she corrected.

"Still," Tony said.

"Whatever," Nebula said. "Are all people from Earth as obnoxious as you and Quill?"

"I take offense to being to being lumped in with him," Stark said. "But usually…yes."

…

"I…I'm pregnant. I'm _really_ pregnant," Pepper repeated for the tenth time.

Sharon looked amongst the various tests that were lined up on the bathroom counter. All of them were definitively positive.

"It does appear that way."

"What if we can't put the world back to what it was or…what if Tony _did_ crash? What do I do then?" Pepper said. She was pacing back and forth, making Sharon look up and watch her.

"Then, you would do what I would do. If I were pregnant and something happened to Steve, I would spend my life telling our child about the amazing mad their father was and all the incredible things he'd done."

"But…" 

"But nothing, Pepper. That's all there is to it. We will do everything we can to bring the timeline back and put things right back. And don't listen to the damned raccoon. Rocket has no idea of the force that is Tony Stark."

"But why can't we track the ship anymore?"

"I don't know. But I _really_ don't think it crashed. FRIDAY would know it crashed. Hell, Alexa and Suri would know," Sharon said. "The GPS on my old car would know. Nothing is going to stop Tony from getting back here to you."

"This is definitely not how I imagined finding out I'm pregnant."

Sharon nodded. "Yeah. I could see that. But nothing goes the way we plan, does it? We can blame the men in our lives," she said with a grin and a wink.

This made Pepper smile, just for a second.

"Thank you, Sharon. I really am glad that you're here. I don't know how I would be dealing without you."

"You'd deal fine. But you'd probably have Nat or Banner in here instead. So…"

"I'm glad _you_ are here," Pepper said. "I'm sorry to have dragged you away from Steve, though. I'm sure you'd rather be spending time with him."

"He and I are busy ignoring that he woke up in a total panic after a nightmare last night. I suspect it had something to do with all of this, but maybe I'm wrong…"

"I doubt you're wrong."

"Me, too," she said.

"He just ignored it?" Pepper said. "I would have thought that of all men on Earth, Steve Rogers would tell you what is going through his mind after waking up from a disturbing dream."

"One, like I said before, he tries to shelter me the best he can. And two, because he was going to ignore it, I ended up distracting him."

"Is that what you're calling it? Distraction?" Pepper smiled. "You _do_ realize _I_ know you're a grown woman and you're having sex. No matter how much Tony wants to put his fingers in his ears and go _la la la_ …" Pepper said.

"Okay, yes. Steve and I had sex. Several times last night and this morning. Am I proud that I was using it as a distraction for the both of us? No. But it did make us feel better."

"I'll bet it did," Pepper smiled. "If you were with a stranger, I'd be worried. But he's your fiancé. And you love him."

"I do."

"Have you two talked about kids?"

"How did we get here? We were talking about you and Tony and the baby and somehow here we are. Let's go back to you and Tony. Aside from the other day, had he ever mentioned kids?"

"Other than finding them mostly boring, no. Not until Peter became part of the whole deal," Pepper said. "And you and Steve haven't talked at all about kids?"

"The man is 100 years old. I don't know the ramifications of the serum on Steve's genes. And…he's going to outlive me. We've been avoiding the conversation about kids for a long time. And it just got easier to put it all on the backburner when we became fugitives."

"I'm sorry, Sharon. I didn't think," Pepper said. "That sucks, too."

Sharon nodded once. "Yep."

"This is so depressing," Pepper said. "I have an unused test. Want to try it?"

…

"So, it's decided we'll draft a letter to the UN and we will make them aware of the reasons these events have occurred," Steve told the table.

"Perhaps a video, instead, Steve?" Shuri suggested. She'd joined them after the official tour ended. The Queen was still with May, Ned, and Happy while the remainder of the group formulated their game plan.

"The Princess is right. We should send evidence that it's actually us," Rhodey said.

"I think I'll just…" Banner began.

"Yeah, the Hulk should stay out of the picture, if that's what we decide on," Nat said icily.

"Because of the damage I've done," Bruce told her. "I wouldn't want to cause any additional panic."

"I think I'm good, too, sweetheart," Rocket said. "Earth ain't ready for me."

"I shall take the speaking role," Thor said.

"No. Cap will do it," Rhodey said. "Right?"

…

A/N: You all know how to make my day…

Thank you!


	10. Chapter 10

Infinity

Chapter 10

"So, did I miss anything?" Steve asked Sharon. They had sat down to watch the ten minute video in which Steve explained everything about Thanos and the world losing half the population.

"No, I think that's the whole story," Sharon replied. "Summed up into a nice, little ten minute package."

"Should it be longer? Shorter?"

"No. I think it's as it should be. You know they're going to just outright blame you and the other Avengers. This group, whoever is left, likes to point fingers."

Steve opened his mouth to speak, but Sharon continued.

"But I don't know what else there is to be done. A letter will be completely ignored as it's not safe to leave Wakanda," she said. "So you're doing what you can."

"Is it unsafe to leave Wakanda? I don't think it is," Steve said.

"What do you mean? Wait…" she was catching on.

"Instead of sending the file to the UN, I'm going to deliver it in person. Explain everything. And then they could use the video to broadcast to the world so everyone knows," Steve explained.

"Steve, no. You can't. We are all staying together. You put yourself in danger if you show up at the UN. I don't care if half the population of the world is gone. You and I are still wanted. Just because you're trying to promise that you'll save the world does not mean they'll believe you. And it also doesn't mean they won't turn on you again if we fail."

"Without me delivering the information in person, they'll never believe the information. And then we'll never have the support we need."

"You have lost your mind," Sharon told him.

"Come with me," Steve said.

"I can't. Pepper…"

"Pepper is fine here with the others. She will stay here and receive the medical care…" 

"She…"

"…if she would share her pregnancy status," Steve said. "It's not my business, but no one knows except you and I and she is going to need constant supervision."

"Steve, where is this all coming from?" Sharon asked. "She's pregnant, she's not a child or a puppy. And she only found out for sure yesterday. She'll tell people when she's damn good and ready."

"I'm going to the UN Headquarters," Steve replied. "I'm leaving in a couple of weeks. I'll meet with whoever I need to and then I'll come back," he explained.

"And if they arrest you? What if they decide to take you down on-site?"

"You and the others will continue with the plan," Steve said.

Sharon was walking back and forth in front of him with her arms folded across her chest. She wasn't saying a word, but she was shaking her head furiously.

"Think about this, Sharon. You know, deep down this is our option. This is our play."

"What did the others say?" she asked.

"I haven't told them," Steve replied.

"Secrets don't make friends, Steve. You expect to run off to the UN and deal with this all on your own? And you aren't telling the others? That's insane."

"If I arrive at the UN with the Avengers in tow, it's going to look like we're trying to overthrow them. It's going to look threatening."

"And marching up alone looks like suicide," she said. "You don't need to sacrifice yourself, Steve. You know that." 

"Yes, I do. And I'm going to."

The two of them were quiet for a few beats.

"Find. Go ahead," Sharon said, pushing past him and out the door.

Natasha and Thor walked into the room to join Steve now that the door was open.

"Should we ask what that was about?" Natasha asked now that the door was open.

"We should and we shall," Thor replied. "What was that about? Quarrel between lovers?"

"It's nothing," Steve said in his no-nonsense voice. It was the voice he used to pretend that nothing was wrong. It was the voice he used to reassure people that the world would be safe.

"You'll have to try harder, Steve, because we all know that's bullshit," Natasha said. "You can tell me, or I'm going to find Share and hound her until _she_ tells me. And she will."

"I'm leaving for the UN. I'm taking the video to them in person. I'm going alone. I need you both to stay here."

"You are an idiot," Thor said.

"What?" Steve said.

"An idiot. You are an idiot. A moron," he said to Steve. "At this point, it's all of us or none of us." 

"And we made that video so _none_ of us had to go. And _none_ of us are going," Natasha said.

"Even if Banner or I have to sit on you to keep you here."

"But…"

"I'm sure Sharon covered everything that I could say," Nat said. "I'm going to upload the video to the UN. You can video chat instead, if needed."

Natasha left the room and Steve was alone with Thor.

"You're going anyway, aren't you?" Thor asked.

Steve said nothing.

"I don't agree with your decision, but I will help you. I know that sometimes the path we must take is not clear for anyone except ourselves. What do you need me to do?"

"I need you to make sure everyone else stays here and stays safe. And if something happens to me, I need you to promise me that you will keep Sharon and the others from coming after me," Steve said.

"Do you really think I will be able to stop your fiancée? God of thunder I might be, but I do not get in the way of a woman on a mission," Thor said.

"Please?" Steve asked.

"Of course," Thor replied. "She is going to be so mad at you," he said after a quiet moment. "And me as well. But I know you need to do this. Deep down, I know she knows that as well."

Steve nodded. "I do hope Sharon realizes that as well."

Half an hour later, Steve was preparing a ride to leave Wakanda. Sharon was nowhere to be found and while Steve was feeling guilty to be leaving without clearing things up with her, he needed to leave sooner rather than later.

"I already know you know everything I'm going to say, so I won't say it," Shuri said, walking up to the jet that Steve was standing near. "You have all of the resources of Wakanda at your disposal and you're leaving the country." 

"Only temporarily, Shuri," Steve said.

"Do you really think the UN officials won't take you into custody on first sight? Because, I sure would if I were them."

"I really appreciate your vote of confidence, Princess," Steve replied.

"Would your brother have gone?" Steve interrupted her.

"Yes, of course he would," Shuri replied without hesitation. "And I would be having the same conversation with him as I am having with you. I do not understand why you have a need to go in person."

"I couldn't explain it to Sharon and I can't explain it now, either. I just have to go."

"You can't explain it, but _I_ can," Sharon said from behind him.

"I'll leave you two be," Shuri said. "Be careful, Captain Rogers," Shuri said before walking away.

"I didn't think I was going to see you before I left," Steve said.

"I almost didn't come out here, believe me," Sharon told him. "But for some reason, here I am."

"I'm glad about that," Steve told her.

"You know they aren't going to automatically be on our side when you show up, even with a plan to fix everything. And we don't even have a complete plan to find Thanos. I know you want them all to have you – well, you want to be in everyone's good graces…"

"That's _not_ why…"

Sharon looked at him and it silenced him.

"Maybe not entirely, Steve, but you know that you have hated every damn day that you've been an enemy of the world, even when you knew you were doing the right thing. I don't blame you. But you are not going to be able to fix things in one go."

"I know that. But I also believe that this information will be better received from me, in person," Steve said. "You can still come with me."

"I need to stay here, with Pepper. And make sure she doesn't kill Rocket," Sharon smiled slightly.

"I _will be_ back as soon as possible," Steve told her.

"See that you are," Sharon replied.

"Don't disappear on me while I'm gone, okay?"

"I'll do my best," she said.

"I love you," Steve said, tilting his head to kiss her. She kissed him back hungrily.

"I love you, too," Sharon said when they broke apart.

"Do I look okay?" Steve said as he moved toward the quinjet's door.

Sharon chuckled. "You look like you've been a fugitive on the run for a couple years and you haven't had much sleep lately, but yeah, you _always_ look good to me," Sharon said.

"Thanks," Steve replied.

"Give 'em hell, Captain Rogers," Sharon said.

She kissed him again and he climbed into the quinjet. The door closed behind him and he got settled in the seat and buckled in. He saluted Sharon and she saluted him back. Then he took off.

Sharon watched until the quinjet was a pinpoint in the blue Wakandan sky and then he was totally gone.

She retreated back up the hill and joined Shuri to walk to the palace.

"You do also believe this is…stupid…yes?" Shuri asked.

"Oh, hell yes," Sharon said to the young woman.

"And you didn't stop him because…?"

"There's no stopping Steve Rogers when he's on a mission. He decided this is how things need to be and here we are."

"I will, of course, defer to your judgement and your opinion on the matter. You do know the Captain better than I do," Shuri said. "But I still thinks it's stupid."

"I did know that Steve as going to go, even if I wasn't on his side. It's totally crazy, but he was right. _He's_ the one who had to go and _he's_ the _only_ one who _could_ go. Steve Rogers is our only chance of convincing the UN. Sure, they could lock him up, but it's much more likely that he'll succeed. When Steve decides on something, as you can see, he does it, and he does it to the best of his ability.

The two women were nearly to the palace when the guards posted at the front doors pointed them to turn around. They turned and looked up at where the guards indicated.

"Did Steve turn around?" Shuri asked.

"That's too large to be the quinjet," Sharon said. "FRIDAY," Sharon said as she slipped a pair of Tony's sunglasses on. "What am I looking at?"

"Alien spacecraft coming in for a landing," FRIDAY replied in her ear.

"Are the shields still up?" Sharon asked.

"Yes…is that…?"

"I hope not," Sharon said as the spacecraft got larger and larger as it approached them.

"What are our orders?" Shuri heard in her ear. It was coming from the guard tower in the palace.

"Hold your fire," Shuri told everyone while she and Sharon continued to watch in disbelief and confusion.

"Do you think Cap will come back? Do you think he saw it?" Shuri asked.

"Probably not. But we can do this without him," Sharon said. "It'll be fine," Sharon added for Shuri and for herself.

The spacecraft finally landed a mile from the edge of the clearing, just past where the shields extended. Sharon noted immediately that it wasn't a graceful landing and nothing happened in the time that immediately followed.

"Princess Shuri, what are your orders?" the voice said into Shuri's ear.

"I told you to hold your fire. Those are my orders," Shuri told them.

"What are we doing?" Thor asked as he joined the two of them outside. "I told everyone else to stay inside," he added.

"Good idea," Sharon said.

"That's one of Thanos' ships," Thor said. "I know it," he said.

"That's what I was afraid of," Sharon replied.

"But you're holding fire."

"Nothing we can do can stop Thanos if he's come back to finish us all off,' Shuri said. "What's the point?"

The guards, Sharon, Shuri, and Thor became quiet as they watched the door open. Everyone waited with bated breath to see what would exit the craft.

"Here we go," Thor said, reaching out his right hand to call for Stormbreaker. It flew through the air and Sharon sidestepped just in time to miss being cut in two.

"My apologies, Sharon," Thor said.

"Uh huh," Sharon said, still fixated on the craft.

A moment later, a person, or what looked like a person, stepped out into the grass and tested the ground by jumping up and down a couple of times. This person was followed by a second person and this second person was on their knees, apparently kissing the ground joyously.

"That's Tony!" Sharon said. "That's Tony Stark!" she repeated.

" _That's_ Tony Stark?" Shuri asked. As the man continued to hug the ground. She was not impressed.

…

A/N: So what did you think? Leave me a note and let me know.

Thank you!


	11. Chapter 11

Infinity

Chapter 11

Steve Rogers checked the navigation system again. He had been in the air for an hour and he still had another hour before he would be to the UN headquarters. Steve was grateful the quinjet had autopilot; he was trying to use his time alone to get all of his thoughts together. He wanted to be in his best form to meet with the remaining members of the UN.

Truthfully, Steve was okay that Sharon decided to stay in Wakanda. He would have been all right with her coming along with him as well, but this was better. He could go and know for sure that she was safe.

It was a very real possibility that he would arrive at the UN and they would try to throw him in jail. It would actually surprise him if they didn't try something. And now, with the world the way it was, he wasn't even sure who or what he would find when he arrived at the UN.

"Captain Rogers," a voice said through the speakers in the quinjet. It was Sharon. He smiled.

"Rogers here," Steve replied. "Do you miss me already?"

"Of course I do," she said and Steve smiled again. "I have to update you, though."

"Is everything okay?"

"Everything's as fine as it could be. Tony landed."

"In New York?"

"In Wakanda," Sharon replied.

"How is he?" Steve asked, but he already knew what Sharon was going to say.

"He's happy to be home," Sharon said. "He's in one piece other than that, I have no other info yet."

"I can turn around. Right now," Steve said. "If you want me to," he said earnestly.

"No, no. You should keep on with the plan. I'm going to make sure Tony is all checked out and then talk to him alone. And then I'll make him talk to Pepper."

"He hasn't talked to Pepper yet?"

"She found out he landed and then decided she was too angry to speak with him. But furious or not, if he's okay, I'm going to see that they speak to one another."

"I'm sure you'll do everything you can," Steve said. "I know you can handle anything that's thrown at you."

"It feels like you're buttering me up for something," Sharon said.

"Nope, just stating a fact."

"Uh-huh…"

"Who came back with Stark?"

"Nebula."

"Nebula," Steve repeated. "Who is Nebula?"

"It's more _what_ is Nebula? Nebula is part android and…"

"And?"

"Daughter of Thanos," Sharon said. " _Estranged_ daughter of Thanos, I should say."

"Okay, you should lock her away as soon as…"

"She's with us, Steve," Sharon said. "I'm not worried. She's pissed as hell at her dad. Turns out Thanos sacrificed her sister – the favorite kid – to get the Soul stone. We can probably exploit that. We will be okay. You be safe, too."

Steve didn't say anything for a few beats.

"Steve, you still with me? You just said you knew I can handle anything."

"Yes, I'm here. And yes, you can do anything," he said. "I do trust you."

"Just come back to me in one whole – alive and breathing – piece, please," Sharon said.

"I will. I promise, I will, Sharon," Steve said. "Rogers out."

Sharon disconnected her transmission with Steve and she sat still for a few minutes to think about it all.

The others had jumped in and surrounded Tony to take care of him, so she'd taken the chance to dash away and connect with Steve. And he did react the way she assumed he would.

Sharon was enjoying the quiet but it was interrupted rudely by loud yelling. She sighed because she knew exactly who it was.

"I cannot believe you!" Pepper shouted.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Tony said. "What choice did I have?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe let the others take care of it?" Pepper replied. "You don't need to keep doing this! I know you're Iron Man and…"

"Yes, I _am_ Iron Man. And Bruce and Strange came to me for help. I _had_ to go. It is my job."

Sharon moved across the room quickly and put herself between the shouting couple. "Separate corners, the both of you," she said. "Until you can use your indoor voices."

Tony gave her a look that was meant to silence her but this time, it didn't work.

"You _both_ need to rest before you argue all this out. We have plenty of time to discuss why we did things and why everything happened," Sharon said calmly, yet sternly. She meant business.

Pepper opened her mouth to speak and to argue with Sharon, but she then decided to be quiet.

"And you, Pepper – everything we talked about – all out of the window?" Sharon said.

"You're one to talk," Pepper said.

"Okay, Potts, I'm Kettle," Sharon said. She did lose her cool when Steve had his plan, but she had really thought about it and simmered down. "But you're _both_ here now. Instead of yelling, let's take ten minutes and be happy and thankful that Tony has come back to us alive? We can take turns being mad as hell at him later."

Pepper said nothing she just crossed her arms over her chest and set her mouth in a thin, grim line. She was actually acting like a petulant child and Sharon didn't have any patience for this. Tony then did his own version of this with the exception that he was bruised, cut, and pale from battle, exhaustion, and malnourishment.

Sharon threw her arms up in exasperation and frustration. "You're both insane. You…" she told Pepper. "You go to your room and lay down. That is an order," she said. "Go. And you, Mr. Stark," she turned to Tony. "You can come with me."

Pepper turned on her heel to leave and the door slammed closed behind her.

"You seemed to have gotten really bossy over the last couple of years…"

"Cut the bullshit, Tony. You don't have to put on airs with me," Sharon told him. "And dude, don't give me that look."

"Dude?" Tony repeated. "Who _are_ you?"

"Come with me," Sharon said, opening the door.

He did as he was told and Sharon led him to one of the rooms in the medical wing of the palace. Once inside, she pointed at the exam table. "Sit down."

"Did you get a medical degree when you were on the run, too?" Tony said.

"Please just sit down," she said.

He didn't move.

"Please remember I'm a nurse," Sharon pointed out. "I'm an RN and I have almost as many degrees as you."

Tony sighed deeply and sat down.

"Okay, shirt off," Sharon said. "I can see you wincing when you breathe."

She got another dirty look, but he begrudgingly removed his shirt that he'd donned upon his arrival in Wakanda.

"Oh, Tony," Sharon said when she saw the extent of his wounds.

"I'm fine," Tony said. "I closed myself up with a blast from my gauntlet," he added in explanation.

"Oh, yes. I see. Totally fine," Sharon said sarcastically.

Sharon began to clean the wounds while Tony was pretending it didn't hurt.

"I can get you a bullet to bite down on," Sharon said. "Or some pain meds. At least to numb the area."

"Nope. No meds. I'm fine, thank you," he said. "I know you're the reason I'm here."

"FRIDAY is the reason you're here in Wakanda. And Ned is the reason you're on Earth. Well, the two of them together got you here," Sharon said.

"Ned…Pete's friend?"

"The one and the same," Sharon said. "All I did give him access to your computer systems. Coincidentally, you're going to want to Lysol everything. I let him eat Cheetos in the lab…orange dust everywhere."

Tony gave her a side eye. " _You_ were the one eating the Cheetos. Don't blame the kid."

"I might have eaten a couple of them," Sharon said.

"You've been gone for too long, little girl," he said. "Cap treating you okay? And where is he? Did he…"

"He made it. He faced off with Thanos here in Wakanda," Sharon said.

"What about you?"

"I wasn't here yet. I was still back home; I had gone to my great uncle's funeral. The family missed you, but they are all very excited for your engagement. And so am I," Sharon said. "I know it's not so great now, but yeah, I really am happy."

"This is _not_ how I wanted to tell you, Sharon. Nothing has gone the way I've wanted. I'm just…they all disappeared and…the look on Peter's face. It broke me, Sharon," he said.

Sharon pulled him into a tight embrace as he finally broke down and let all of the emotion come out. He sobbed into her shoulder and Sharon said nothing. She only held him and let him let it all out.

Sharon got Tony cleaned up a while later.

"So, where is Steve?" Tony finally asked.

"Steve is probably now to the UN," Sharon said. "He is going to explain what we know and hopefully we can stop the rioting in the streets all over the world."

"He's doing what?" Tony hopped off the exam table. "They'll lock him up. Or take him out. He's a criminal in their eyes. Sharon, how could you let him go?" he asked.

Sharon rolled her eyes. "What are you even talking about? One, _you_ don't let anyone tell _you_ what to do. And two, I couldn't tell Steve what to do like Pepper can't tell you what to do. And since we know what happened, we are responsible for telling the world. I know the plan is crazy, but he needed to be the one to go to the UN."

"So, what's the plan for when Cap is taken into custody as they enforce the Accords?"

"We'll work that out if and when it comes to that. Thanos took out fifty percent of Earth's living creatures. We're hoping he'll only have half the trouble, or less. And yes, believe me, I told him not to go, because I first thought the whole thing was nuts. But I also realized how right he is."

Tony was shaking his head. "He's just going to fall on his sword?"

"He's taking one for the team, actually. And I have a feeling they'll believe him. What have they got to lose?" Sharon said. "We haven't got anything to lose at this point. We already have lost so much."

"But we also don't have a solution. We only know why this has all happened, Sharon. We don't know how to fix it."

"But that's why Steve went. He'll explain it to the UN and the UN can make a call to the world to tell them to settle down, if possible."

"I'm sorry, Sharon. I'm just not feeling that optimistic about this right now."

"I know. You need to rest. Leave the optimism to me for now."

"I don't…want to close my eyes. I just keep seeing everyone disappearing," he admitted. "I just feel like it's my fault. All my fault."

"For once, none of this has been your fault, Tony. You're a lot of things, but you are not the reason. Thanos came to Earth. We all had a hand in destroying our planet," Sharon told him.

"Was that your pep talk?"

"There's the Tony I know and love," Sharon smirked. "I knew he was inside somewhere. You and Steve and the rest of us, we'll figure out how to put things right."

"How can we do it without the Infinity stones? We don't know where Thanos is…we…"

"Come on, think about it, Tony. When has this group come together for something and really, truly failed? Never. And since we all have our reputations to consider, well, we'll just have to do it again. Better?"

He nodded. "Better?"

"You're going to have to go talk to Pepper," Sharon said.

Sharon's comm buzzed on her hip and she glanced down. All it read was _'Here and landed'._

"Cap?"

"Steve's made it. He says he's landed," Sharon told Tony to answer the question he hadn't asked yet.

"Good," Tony said. "So, on a scale of Banner to Hulk, how pissed is Pepper at me?"

Sharon wanted to warn him of the baby news, just so he'd react the best way when Pepper told him, but she also knew it was not her place. Just because they were superheroes and family and a host of other things, she had no right to say a word. So she kept quiet.

"I think you should just suck it up and let her rail at you for a while. She thought you'd never come back, Tony." 

"I know. I wasn't so sure of my return either. Question for you, kid: how are you staying so calm and detached while your fiancé is – you know, doing what he's doing? And the world has…gone to shit and all that other stuff?"

"One of us has to remain objective. It's your turn to fall to pieces," Sharon said. "Besides, I don't consider myself all that high-strung anyway." 

"I might not do that pieces thing, but I could use a nap."

"That could be arranged."

"Your calmness is freaking me out."

"I'm always calm. I learned to internalize," she said, half-joking. "But really, I know this probably won't go well at the UN. I'm trying to keep as level-headed as possible so when we do need to also go there, I'm not just running off after him without a plan first."

"Another question for you..."

"Yes?"

"Vision – JARVIS – well, he's dead, isn't he?"

"Thanos plucked the stone from his head. Yes, he's dead. Steve told me that Wanda actually had to kill him to destroy the stone before Thanos could take it, but he used the Time stone to put time back and he stole it before any of them could react."

Tony's eyes were enormous. "Maximoff killed him first?"

"Steve watched him die. Twice," Sharon said. "And I guess everyone disappeared just like they did to you…Wanda, T'Challa, Sam, and Bucky," she added quietly.

"Holy shit," Tony hissed.

"We're working on a plan to lure Thanos out from wherever he'd gone. We're going to get the gauntlet and…"

Sharon looked down at the message that buzzed again in her pocket. She frowned.

"What is it, Sharon?" Tony asked.

"They let him inside," she said. "He's going in to meet with council."

…

Author's note: Let me know what you think!

And at least this version of Cap still has his beard…


	12. Chapter 12

Author's Note: Hello all! Happy New Year! Here's the next update!

Infinity

Chapter 12

Steve Rogers arrived at the doors of the UN building in Geneva and somehow, despite his _enemy of the world_ status, he was allowed into the building. No one seemed to question the fact that Captain America had just entered an inter-governmental building and Steve was pleased for that. In fact, Steve was given an escort through the building.

He had originally planned to go to the HQ building in Manhattan but his research showed that the members had been in session in Geneva when the events occurred and they were now sheltered in place.

Of the 193 countries that were part of the UN, Steve was told that 105 of them were represented. More than half were still there and Steve thought that to be a good thing.

He had time to fire off a quick message to Sharon before he was going to be speaking directly to the remaining members of the council. He knew she'd want to know what he hadn't been arrested yet. And he was grateful of that fact, too.

A moment later, the doors opened up and the group filed in, all faces were the same grim look.

The delegate from the US was apparently elected to address him directly.

"Captain Rogers, this is unorthodox, to say the least," the older gentleman said. "However, these past few days have been entirely unorthodox, so we decided to hear what you have to say, despite your current circumstances."

"I appreciate that very much, sir," Steve said.

"Do you know what happened?" a female voice shouted.

"Are you coming to tell us you're responsible for this?" another voice called.

Soon, the room was echoing with questions and the US delegate cleared his throat until they were all silent once more.

"Captain Rogers, you have the floor."

Steve stood once more and moved to the center of the room to address everyone from the podium. The anxiety was a brick in the bottom of his stomach, but he cleared his throat and pressed on.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the United Nations, I know that it falls to me to come and explain to you what we know about what happened 48 hours ago."

Everyone's face registered the same emotion. He wondered how many family members each one of them had lost. How many of them were now all alone because of what Thanos had done.

"Thanos, a tyrannical alien," he began. The room reacted to the word _alien_. "Yes, alien," he said to the open-mouthed shock he received. "Thanos is the entity behind this. He accumulated the six Infinity stones and wielded them. They gave him the power to be unmatched in the galaxy. He used them. He believes that he is a god and it is his duty and his prerogative to decide when planets are overpopulated. He considers what he has done as an act of kindness to Earth. With a simple snap of his fingers, he randomly removed at least fifty percent of our family members, friends, coworkers, and neighbors, so the planet holds a sustainable amount of life."

"Are you…are you the only Avenger left?" someone asked.

"No, we have a group. A small group. And I now can confirm Tony Stark's whereabouts. He's alive," Steve said. "He's now joined our group."

"Can you fix this? Can you fight Thanos?"

"I-I don't know. We tried to stop him when he came to Wakanda, but the Infinity stones all together make him incredibly powerful. As a team, we're working to find Thanos again and take the gauntlet where he's collected all the stones. With the gauntlet, we're hoping we can reverse what is done and bring our world back."

" _Hoping?"_

"The universe is expansive. We don't know where Thanos is," Steve said hoarsely. "We have an idea, but nothing is verified and I absolutely want to be honest with you."

"What can we do?" another delegate asked, standing.

"Yes, what can we do to be of help?"

Steve nodded. "You can call for the panic to stop. Educate everyone around the globe. Let them know that we are _all_ sharing this same awful experience and while the panic is valid and real, the violence and destruction will not fix anything," he said to them. "We are all part of this and the only way we can get through this is by doing it together. Please speak with your governments and your citizens, ask them to stop. Tel them what I've told you," he said.

He raised his hand to show them the flash drive.

"This is a video you can take. Translate it, show it everywhere to everyone. Let Thanos see what he's done is not going to stop us."

Steve was somewhat relieved now that he'd told everyone there the information he had and he needed to gear up to prep for his return to Wakanda.

"Captain Rogers?" a voice behind him called his name. Steve turned around and made eye contact with the woman who had called his name.

"Yes, ma'am?" he replied respectfully. He recognized her as a representative from Finland.

"Thank you," she said, reaching out to take his hands in hers. "Thank you for risking everything to come here to speak with us," she said.

Steve simply looked at her. He had no clue what to say to her.

"You have always put the needs of others before your own," she said.

"I appreciate that you and the other members of the United Nations gave me the benefit of the doubt and let me speak," Steve replied.

"For the record, I've always appreciated your sacrifice, Captain Rogers. It takes a person of strong character to keep putting others first. Thank you. Thank you for coming here and making sure we were informed," she explained to him.

Steve knew his cheeks had turned pink, but he made himself respond.

"I wasn't even certain I would be let in today. I knew there was a real possibility that I'd be turned away or, more likely, taken into custody," he said.

"In any other circumstance, Captain, I think you'd be correct and we wouldn't be having this conversation," she said. "Are you headed back to Wakanda now?"

Steve nodded. "Yes, ma'am. I'm going to meet up with what's left of our group and we are going to keep moving with the plan."

"Good luck, Captain Rogers," she said.

Steve reached out and shook the woman's hand. "Thank you. You be safe as well."

Steve's ship was fully fueled up shortly after and he quickly typed out another message to Sharon. He considered, for a few moments, staying longer in Geneva, but ultimately, he thought it would end up doing more harm than good. And in reality, he wanted to be with everyone in Wakanda and he was also curious how Tony was doing.

Without any more good-byes, Steve departed Geneva to return to Wakanda once more.

…

"Steve's on his way back," Sharon said to Thor, whose face registered a level of surprise she hadn't been expecting. "You didn't think he'd be coming back?" she asked.

"Honestly, I'm not sure what I had expected. It's not like things have been going our way as of recently," Thor replied. "But I am glad that Rogers is returning, Sharon. Did he say how the announcement went?"

"He simply said they'd let him speak and he'd given them the flash drive. And that he was on his way back," Sharon replied.

It had only been a matter of hours since he'd left and maybe an hour since he'd told her he'd be going in to address the UN, so Sharon wasn't totally sure what she'd expected either. But she and Thor were outside waiting, because they'd needed to get out of the palace.

Tony and Pepper were still inside Pepper's quarters and the others were down in the lab with Shuri, attempting to do something that could track Thanos now that Nebula was there and could give them new insight on the maniac.

"How – how are you doing, Thor?" Sharon asked tentatively.

He turned to her and regarded her carefully.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Sharon let out a bark of uncomfortable laughter. "What do I mean?" Well, your planet, people, brother, not that I'm overly fond of him, but yeah…are you okay? Obviously not, duh. But would you…would you like to talk about it?" Sharon asked. "As a god, do you talk about your feelings?"

"I think if you would have asked me that a few years ago I would have told you I didn't have feelings," Thor told her.

Sharon nodded.

"But…obviously, I do. Everyone does – Midgardian, Asgardian, and all beings in-between. Including me," he continued. "Loki is my brother, no matter what, and I will always miss him. He – I don't have to tell you he's done terrible things, but I know I want people to remember him fighting to save Asgard and then fighting to stop Thanos. He died protecting me," Thor told her.

"I'm glad he realized that you would love him no matter what he'd done," Sharon said. "Doesn't mean I like him, but I'm glad that you had both reconciled, despite the tragedy that followed."

"Do you have any siblings?"

Sharon nodded. "A couple; I'm the youngest," she said.

"And do you know where they are now?"

"I called the house – the family home where we'd all been for my uncle's funeral last week. They were staying there when I left and there was no answer. And their cell phones went straight to voicemail. They're gone, too."

Thor put his arm around her without looking at her and pulled her to his side while they continued their sentry duty. They were still standing that way when someone joined them ten minutes later.

"Are you changing muscly boyfriends on me?" Tony asked. "Because I don't think my brain could take it and I definitely don't want to have to tell Cap."

Sharon sighed and turned around while Thor's arm moved away.

"Steve is on his way back," Sharon said.

"So, you're getting your cuddles in quick?" he asked.

"You're an idiot," Sharon replied. "Merely commiserating. Isn't that what family does for one another?"

"You know I'm not the person to ask about family," Tony said. "I don't exactly have the best track record. But Cap isn't being held by the UN? He's actually able to come back?"

"That's what he said," Sharon replied.

Sharon was watching Tony carefully, looking for the usual tells he had when he was supposed to be keeping something secret. But she saw nothing. This was a completely different level of calm than she'd ever seen on Tony Stark.

"So, um, Thor, could I speak with the future Mrs. America for a moment?" Tony said.

"I'm just going to the other side of the courtyard should you need me to…whatever," Thor said.

"Thank you," she said with a small smile.

Thor walked away and Tony stayed quiet for a few beats, just enjoying the beauty of Wakanda.

"Pepper's pregnant," Tony said quietly. Sharon didn't have to look at him to know some level of a smile was on his face. But Sharon said nothing.

"You don't have to pretend you didn't know. Pepper said she talked to you about it. And we'll talk about all the spare pregnancy tests you were keeping some other time," he said in a slightly stern tone.

"Congratulations, Tony," Sharon said before pulling him into a tight hug.

"Thank you, little girl," Tony said. "I'm going to let myself enjoy the news for ten minutes before I let reality sink in."

…

Author's note: Thanks so much for reading! Let me know what you think! 


	13. Chapter 13

Infinity

Chapter 13

Sharon massaged her temples again, hoping the headache that had settled there would disappear but so far, she was having no luck – it seemed like it was going to be there forever. Sharon stood back, giving Pepper and Tony plenty of space while they had made their announcement of the impending little one.

Pepper was beaming and everyone seemed genuinely pleased for them, despite the circumstances. Well, everyone but Tony. Even at a distance, Sharon could tell that Tony was putting on a good show. And she wondered how Pepper hadn't noticed because to be perfectly honest, it wasn't even that convincing.

Tony turned and gave Sharon a look – a _save me_ one. She knew he was _more_ than done with this little show.

Sharon stepped forward, recognizing her cue. "Hey, Pep," Sharon smiled. "I think it's time you and I took a walk. I'd like to get you hooked up to the monitors for a while and to make sure you don't get dehydrated. And I'd like to check your BP and the baby's heart rate…" Sharon said.

"I…I feel fine, Sharon, but…okay…" she stopped and agreed when she saw the concern on Sharon's face.

"I would feel a lot better if we made sure you and the baby were checked periodically," Sharon said.

Tony nodded his agreement. "Yes, you and the little one need to stay as healthy as possible," he said. "And you've already been under a lot of stress, Pepper. Let's not add more," he finished.

"At least, not yet, right?" she said. "Because I know this is all temporary, Tony. You'll go after Thanos again…"

"Damn right I will," he said. "I…"

"Okay," Sharon jumped into interrupt the impending fight. "This isn't going to happen right now, so Pepper you can come with me and Tony, you can stay here and…I don't care. Cool? Cool," she said, not waiting for anyone to respond.

Sharon hurried Pepper away, leaving Tony with the remaining assembled group.

"He's not actually excited, you know," Pepper said when they had nearly reached their destination.

"Well, uh…" Sharon hesitated. She didn't know what to say. The truth would upset her and a lie could give her false hope. But her hesitation said it all.

"You don't think so, either, do you? I _knew_ this was going to happen! He made that enormous fuss about kids and now… This is just so like him," she said angrily.

"Hold on, hold on," Sharon stopped her. "Yes, right now he's not as excited as he was, but please remember the circumstances we are now in. His dream of you being pregnant did not include Thanos or his destruction of half of Earth's population. You know you had no other worries other than what you were going to wear to dinner," Sharon said. "You were newly engaged and the world was – not perfect – but it didn't suck like it does now. So you can give the man a break, yeah?" she said to Pepper.

Sharon was trying to be the peace-keeper and she was growing more and more frustrated with the two of them and their whole deal. Her patience was wearing dangerously thin when it came to babysitting these adults and she had to take a moment to calm down.

"Yes, of course I can," Pepper said quietly. "I will."

"Thank you," Sharon said in a relieved way. "Let's get you settled so you can kick back and relax."

Pepper nodded and followed Sharon the rest of the way down the hall and into Pepper's room. She let Sharon get her all hooked up so her vitals would be checked constantly and would alert Sharon and medical staff if everything wasn't normal.

…

Steve Rogers was nearly back to Wakanda when he was hailed by a familiar, yet unexpected, voice.

"Rogers? Can you read me? Is that you? I hope to hell it is," General Ross' gruff voice said through the radio.

"Yes, this is Rogers," he replied back, but could not muster any enthusiasm for the man or what he could possibly have to say.

"It's good to hear your voice, Captain," Ross said.

Steve was stunned, to say the least.

"You've been to the UN," Ross said without waiting for a reply. "Another alien? Loki again?"

"No, General. Thanos," Steve said. "He has the power to wipe out entire planets with a single snap of his fingers and he did just that. Thanos thinks he's a god and can decide to regulate populations on planets to save them from themselves," he said with a sarcastic edge to his voice. "And so he did just that."

"Do you have a team left?" 

"Excuse me, sir, but the last time I spoke with you, you requested that Colonel Rhodes arrest me and my team, so…forgive me if I'm not immediately forthcoming."

"I obviously don't need to tell you what a mess we've got. And you went to the UN and told them that you and the remaining Avengers are going to try to fix this shit," Ross said angrily. "There's only a couple of us left here. And my wife was spared, but my children are all gone."

Steve didn't know what to say.

"You're going to make me do it? Fine. Criminal or not, we need you and the others. What the hell would we do without you?" he finished sarcastically.

"We're working on a plan, sir. I left the group in Wakanda to go to the UN, but I'm almost back there now," Steve said.

"Who do you have on this? Banner? Rhodes?"

Steve rolled his eyes because despite everything he was dealing with, Ross still didn't trust him.

"Do you know what happened to Stark?" Ross asked, this time sounding more concerned.

"Rhodes and Banner came to Wakanda with us and I was informed that Tony has returned to Earth and is Wakanda now as well," he answered.

"I need you to bring everyone stateside," Ross said.

A beat passed. "I need to discuss that with the others, sir."

"Fine," Ross said quietly. "Do what you must."

"I am sorry about your family, General," Steve said. "We are going to do whatever we can do fix this and stop Thanos from ever doing it again."

Another beat passed. "Thank you, Captain Rogers. I will wait to hear back from you when you have spoken with the others. Ross out."

Steve had very intentionally decided not to discuss with the UN or with Ross who the remaining members of the team were, with the exception of those he'd specifically asked about. He knew he wouldn't care that Bucky was gone and Steve couldn't be sure who would be willing to fight Thanos when or if they located him. He had learned after the Accords that he couldn't make any assumptions when it came to sides.

It was dark, an hour or so past sunset, when Steve was once more allowed into the Wakandan airspace. He had radioed in and one of the Dora Milaje under Okoye's watchful command had opened a passage for him to bring in the jet for landing and it was Okoye herself that met him when he disembarked a few minutes later.

"Welcome back, Captain," Okoyesaid.

"Thank you. I am glad to be back," Steve said.

"Did your trip go as desired?" she asked.

"Better than anticipated, in fact," Steve told her. "So what did I miss here?" he asked as they walked toward the palace side by side.

She sighed quietly.

"You can tell me," Steve said, a slight smirk on his face. "Was it Tony, Thor, Dr. Banner, or the raccoon? Or, all of the above?"

"Ms. Potts and Mr. Stark announced Ms. Potts' pregnancy," Okoye said. "And everyone was happy for a moment before…they weren't. The two of them began fighting once more. Sharon took Ms. Potts back to be monitored and, I assume, to break up the argument. I must also assume that Miss Carter is used to their volatile relationship?" Okoye said.

"I know you haven't known us long, but you've hit the nail on the head, Okoye," Steve replied. "How long ago was that?"

"An hour ago," she said. "The UN – what is their plan? Do they have one?"

"Their plan is to wait for our plan," Steve said flatly. "So, we need to have one soon. But they agreed to return to their home countries and to tell them to…well, to stop what they are all doing. They accepted my explanation and that's what I wanted," Steve said.

"I am pleased they listen," Okoye said.

"Now we will have to put all our focus on the plan."

They reached the palace entrance and Okoye bade him goodnight. She was headed to meet with the Queen and Princess and Steve hoped he could find Sharon before he had to speak with anyone else from the group.

Voices carrying down the hall told him that he wasn't going to be that lucky. The voices grew louder and closer and he could tell it was Natasha and Clint.

"I cannot believe he wants to have a freaking party," Clint was saying. "Why the hell would we have a party?"

They came around the corner and saw Steve.

"Good to see you're back," Natasha said.

"I'm glad to be back," Steve replied. "Who is trying to have a party?"

Clint rolled his eyes. "Thor," he said flatly.

"I don't think that's a good idea…" Steve said.

"It's actually a shitty idea," Clint said, matter-of-factly. "Why the f…"

"I'll make sure he knows we do not have time for a party," he cut Clint off. "That it would be inappropriate."

"I'm going to bed," Clint said. "Glad you're back, Cap," he said to Steve before heading down the hall.

"You can finish updating me in the morning. I have a pounding headache. Thank you for volunteering to go. I don't think the UN is ever going to be excited to see me," she smirked.

"I didn't exactly get a standing ovation when I walked in either," Steve replied with his own small grin. "I understand it's been quite the occasion since Tony's arrived," he added.

Nat shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Sharon has the patience of a saint. I would have cracked and probably knocked the both of them unconscious hours ago," Nat said. "And I'm trained to withstand torture," she said.

"That bad, huh?" he said, loosening his collar a bit.

"Tag; you're it," Nat yawned. "Good night."

"Good night," Steve said with a nod.

Nat walked down the hall after Clint and Steve stood in the palace entry for a moment. He could hear Thor, shouting about something, and Rocket Raccoon responding about something just as loudly.

"Out of the frying pan and into the fire," Steve muttered to himself as he walked toward the origin of the voices.

Steve observed the room, silently, for a moment. Rhodey was dozing in an armchair while Bruce was using a tablet of Wakandan design and whatever he was reading he was studying it intently.

No one had seen Steve yet and he was turning to escape when Thor finally realized his presence.

"Rogers! Join us in this fine game!" Thor said very loudly. He was _very_ drunk.

"The pirate angel is cheating! Which no one but me seems to give a shit about," Rocket grumbled, also very inebriated.

"You must have some of this!" Thor said, raising a large, but partially empty, glass. "I can't remember why I was depressed!" he laughed.

"Well, it wouldn't actually do me any good. I can't get drunk," Steve said.

"That's blows," Rocket replied before taking a long drink from his own glass. "What do you do to forget your problems?" he hiccupped.

"I don't," Steve said simply. "We will be having no parties by the way. I'm going to find Sharon and turn in for the night. No parties."

"We _must_ celebrate Stark's impending fatherhood! Stark is continuing his lineage and it is our duty to rise up and toast to his progeny!" Thor announced loudly.

Steve shook his head. "No, no we don't. Definitely not now, we don't," he told Thor. "You are drunk right now and…"

"Drunk, sober, it matters not! Stark's line is to be continued and that is reason enough to celebrate!" Thor told Steve. "And it will be excellent for team morale, Rogers," he said, standing to face Steve. 

Steve shook his head once more. "We will all have a celebration when our mission is completed and that is an order," Steve said. Steve wasn't ever sure if Thor would listen to him and then the alcohol today – the whole thing was a gamble.

The drunk god-man before him regarded Steve for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

"Of course; you're right, Rogers. We shall have an epic celebration upon putting Midgard back to what it once was," he said. "Shall we finish our game, Rabbit?" he turned to Rocket.

"Yeah, sit your ass down and let me beat you. And you'd better cut it out with the cheating," Rocket said.

Steve nodded at the two of them. He'd talk to them, or at least Thor, when he sobered up in the morning. Turning around, Bruce was still engrossed in his reading and Rhodey was still asleep. He could now go find Sharon.

Steve pulled the door closed behind him and walked down to the living quarters of the palace. He was tired and he just wanted to find Sharon so they could fall into bed.

…

Author's Note: I'm so sorry that it took me so long to update. I just never seem to have the time anymore… Hopefully you'll forgive me. Let me know what you think!


	14. Chapter 14

Author's Note: Well…it's only been around 3 months since my last update and Endgame came out weeks ago. I considered giving up on this story, but I decided to continue on with how I was going to write it, so here it is.

As always, please let me know what you think. Thank you!

Infinity

Chapter 14

Steve Rogers could hear them before he could see them. He moved closer to the sound and he was certain that he was going to be walking in to an argument between Tony and Sharon, judging solely from the volume. He moved to the shadows just on the threshold of the balcony on which they were standing and listened.

"How could you spend all that time with Nebula coming back to Earth and not ask where Thanos would be?" Sharon asked Tony.

"Oh, I don't know. I guess I was more concerned with getting to Earth in one piece," Tony replied. " _You_ could go ask her. And what about you? You have access to a SHIELD database that somehow was spared the data-dump five years ago and you aren't going to share it with me?" Tony said.

"I am _not_ sorry that you can't get into it."

"It's not that I didn't get in – yet. It's that I didn't know about it in the first place, little girl," he said angrily.

"What do you want me to say?"

"I am _so_ glad that you asked. I would like an apology and your access code so I don't have to stay up tonight breaking into it."

Steve took a step forward to be ready to break up the oncoming fight. He could see the look on Sharon's face – he knew it well – and he knew what would be coming next.

"Oh, I'm going to apologize, but not for not sharing the info from a _very_ top secret SHIELD director database," Sharon said. "I'm going to apologize for you thinking that you're entitled to the information. So you can just forget all about it."

Tony was shaking his head. "No. Nope. I do not like that Fury was hoarding information still."

Steve heard Sharon sigh. "This was started by Peggy Carter – you know, your godmother – way back at the beginning of SHIELD. Fury, Coulson, and all the SHIELD directors between them added to it. Only directors had access to it. And myself," Sharon explained as calmly as she could.

"Listen to me, little girl: I do not give a shit," Tony told her. "You said you saw something indicating Fury and…"

"Just because it was showing Fury does not mean that it's Fury. Tech can malfunction. I have tried all means of contact with Fury and have received nothing back," she answered.

"So your super-secret database kinda just super sucks."

"I hate you," Sharon replied, but it had no punch to it.

"Well, _something_ is showing up as Fury on _his_ database. And as much as I want to enjoy taunting you for the incredibly ancient tech…" 

"Okay, but the pinpoint showing as Fury hasn't moved in hours," she said, holding up a tablet showing a map. "Nick Fury would not be hanging out on a curb in Manhattan all day."

Tony shrugged.

"I know he's got a hell of a lot of weird habits, but this isn't a good spy move," Sharon said.

Steve finally stepped out onto the balcony. "Well, Nick Fury is an expert on misdirection."

Sharon let out a deep breath, one of relief, when she saw him and he gave her a smile.

"Hey, you can take it down a notch, kiddo. The man was only gone half a day," Tony said.

Sharon gave him a look but didn't say anything.

Tony held out his hand. "Welcome back, Cap."

"Same to you, Tony," Steve replied, shaking hands with him. "All okay here? Well, you know…"

"Yes," Sharon replied. "We were just having a chat regarding the SHIELD director's database that Peggy started…" she trailed off.

"Ah, I see," Steve nodded.

"You told the boyfriend and not the godfather?" Tony asked. "And you," he turned to Steve. "You don't have a problem with the secret-keeping that SHIELD continues to do? After everything?"

Steve shook his head. "Sharon told me I could trust it. So I do. Because I trust her," he explained.

Tony looked baffled at what Steve had just said and for a full minute, said nothing. He simply looked back and forth between the two of them.

Eventually, he put his hands up in surrender.

"I'm going to see if Pepper will let me in or I need to find another room to crash in tonight," he said. "We can talk more in the morning. Perhaps figure out a plan."

"…ask Nebula where her dad is…" Sharon interjected.

Tony raised an eyebrow, but kept quiet.

"I think our plan needs to start by going back to New York," Steve told them.

"I'm not disagreeing with you, Steve. But…why?" Tony asked.

"Because if we stay here, we're hiding. No matter what we're actually look like we're hiding to everyone that's left," Steve said.

Tony nodded. "The world needs to know we're still here and we're going to fight to put things right."

"Sharon," Steve said. "What do you think?"

"I'm trying to decide if I have a valid reason we should stay in Wakanda, but…yeah. We need to go to New York."

"How do you think everyone else will take it?" Steve asked.

"It's a moot point," Tony said. "They're going. We'll go back to HQ, I'll have full access to my suits and computers. And you can investigate the signal showing up as Fury in Manhattan. Can't do _that_ from here."

Sharon looked over to Steve. "Signal, system glitch, same difference…"

"But it could be something he left for us," Steve said.

Tony was nodding. "I agree. Totally his MO. Fury must be leading us there for some reason."

Sharon rolled her eyes. "It's a big, fat load of nothing, gentlemen. I can see I'm not going to be able to saw you…despite working with him directly for many, many years, so I am just going to go to bed."

"I think that would be good for _all_ of us. It's been a very long day. We should all get some sleep and then we can talk with everyone in the morning."

"Are you going to herd the others to bed?" Sharon asked.

"I'm going to try," Steve replied.

He'd actually planned on leaving the others to their own devices and following Sharon to their room, but it was probably a good idea that he that they got to their rooms and weren't up all night.

"Okay, I'll see you shortly then," Sharon said.

"Before you go, you can unlock that database for me," Tony said.

Sharon stared directly at Tony. "No, I actually can't. But thank you for asking, again," she replied before retreating off the balcony with a swish of her ponytail.

Steve was hiding a smirk under his beard but Tony did not look amused.

"You actually thought that would end up in your favor?" Steve asked, forcing his smile away.

"You need a haircut, Rogers," Tony said before also exiting the balcony.

It took almost an hour for Steve to get Thor and Rocket to their beds and that was with the help of Rhodey and Banner.

Steve quietly let himself into the room he shared with Sharon and was surprised to find Sharon still awake.

"Hey," Steve said before crouching down to remove his boots. "What are you still doing up?"

"I wanted to wait for you. And I'm guarding my info," Sharon replied while glancing at the tablet lying next to her.

"You know he's going to get into the database. You might as well just give him access," Steve said as he began to remove his suit.

"I _do_ know that. But I'm going to make him work for it," Sharon said.

"Now that's not very nice, Share," Steve said, pulling on a pair of dark grey sweats and smirking slightly.

"I'm not feeling particularly nice. I was showing him purely out of the kindness of my heart but he think's entitled. Truthfully, there's nothing I wouldn't actually show him since 99.9% of SHIELD secrets have been declassified anyway. But just because he's Tony Stark he doesn't get everything handed to him."

Steve was leaning on the door frame to the bathroom watching her through half-closed eyes.

"Go get ready for bed," Sharon said. "You need some sleep, Captain," Sharon said.

He nodded and walked into the bathroom.

Fifteen minutes later, Sharon was watching Steve sleep. His head had hit the pillow and it was lights out for Captain Rogers.

…

"So when do we leave?" Natasha asked the next morning.

Everyone was seated around a table, some of them looking better than others.

"Hey girly, don't shout, all right?" Rocket said in a snippy voice while holding his head.

Nat smirked slightly. "Maybe the rodent should have stayed out of the Wakandan liquor…" she said.

Rocket stood up on his chair and for a split second was angry. The anger quickly turned to queasy and he bowed his head.

"You're lucky, blondie, that I ain't feeling good," he said as he sat back down.

"What? Were you going to rummage through my garbage can?" Nat replied.

The raccoon shook his head. "You just wait…"

"Oh, I definitely am beside myself with anticipation," Nat said in a sarcastic monotone.

Steve had watched this all unfold and truthfully, had no idea how to break up an argument between a human and an anthropomorphized raccoon, so until that moment, he'd just let it happen.

Taking his chance to interrupt, Steve cleared his throat so he could continue on with his explanation of the plan.

"I think it would be best if we planned to leave Wakanda for New York as soon as possible," Steve answered.

Nat nodded before putting a comforting hand on Clint's shoulder. "We're in."

"Do you really think leaving Wakanda is a good idea?" Pepper said, her brows furrowed. "Because I'm nauseous and I don't think it's all from just morning sickness."

"I do think we should return to New York. Cap had a good point; we look like we're hiding here. And we aren't hiding. We're going to find Thanos," Tony said.

"Yeah? How do you think you'll do that?" Nebula asked.

She was seated at the far end of the table and until that moment hadn't uttered much of anything.

"You."

"Me?" Nebula asked incredulously. "Why would…"

"You know dear ol' dad. I _know_ you do," Tony said, standing. He began to approach her.

"You are giving me too much credit, Stark," Nebula replied.

Tony shook his head. "No, no, I don't think I am. I think you know _exactly_ what your old man is up to. I think you knew he's been doing this shit to planets for a long time and you could have stopped him."

"Stopped him?" Nebula scoffed. "You all couldn't stop him, what makes you think that I could have? And when he'd first spoken of the plan, why would I have wanted to?" she said.

"What do you mean?" Steve said.

"It's barbaric what he's done to civilizations on other planets," Sharon said. "I don't care if he thinks he's a savior or anything."

Nebula was smirking.

"Why is she smiling like that, Stark?" Clint asked angrily.

"I'm smiling because of how foolish you all are. Thanos killed his own daughter to retrieve the soul stone on Vormir. What makes you think…"

"Are you mad that it wasn't you?" Rocket asked Nebula.

"Am I mad that Gamora is dead? Yes."

"You're jealous," Tony said accusingly while staring Nebula down.

The self-righteous smirk fell from Nebula's lips.

"I've _always_ been jealous of my father's favorite. And now he's taken away the one thing I had always wanted: a family. 

"So, what are you saying?" Tony asked.

"I'm saying that there are a couple places that Thanos could be and I can assist in finding him," Nebula said.

"You _can_ , but _will_ you?" Tony asked her.

Everyone was silent while Tony and Nebula stared at one another.

"Yes," Nebula said quietly. "I'll help find Thanos," she said.

…

Author's Note: Please let me know what you think…


	15. Chapter 15

Infinity

Chapter 15

It was decided, at that table that it would be wheels up on the jet in six short hours for their trek to New York.

There was no argument amongst, the group, and Steve couldn't help but think that was problem in itself. To be productive, and to distract himself, he was down loading the quinjet with a couple members of the Dora Milaje. Queen Ramonda had been incredibly generous with making sure they were well-stocked for the ride home.

He stopped to check some items off of his list when Sharon caught him off-guard.

"Tell me what's on your mind, Captain," Sharon said, coming to stand next to him.

"Same old, same old," he said, almost wistfully.

"Saving the world is just old hat now?" Sharon said. "Consider a career change: maybe investment banker? Or real estate agent?"

"Nat could lawyer," Steve suggested.

"She would be the _best_ damn lawyer," she agreed. "Tony could do infomercials for…everything," she said.

"Banner could be a senator," Steve laughed.

"President," Sharon countered. "Just so you know…it is okay to have doubts. We all do."

"Everyone trusts that I know what's best and I'm trying to convince myself that I'm telling the truth that I do know, but I don't know," Steve said.

"I know," she nodded into his side. "But we'll do this as a team," Sharon said. "I gave Tony the SHIELD database info. When we find Fury, he'll be…furious," Sharon chuckled.

"Really?" he smirked at her terrible joke.

Sharon shrugged and still smiled.

"I don't think I could do this without you, Sharon," Steve said, looking down at her.

"Oh sure you could," Sharon replied.

"I'm serious. You being here with me…means the world to me," Steve said. "I am not good at this…I just…love you."

"Sounds like you're doing great to me," Sharon replied.

"So…fix all this so you can marry me and make an honest man out of me?" he replied.

"Yes, exactly."

"Then let's get the quinjet moving sooner than fourteen hundred," he said back to her.

Sharon stood up on her toes to reach his cheek and gave Steve a chaste kiss.

"If you need me, I'll be attempting to get Happy to calm down. And Pepper. Oh, and May Parker and Ned."

"Yeah, sounds safer down here," he replied. "Well, I should probably get back to loading. If you need me, ma'am, I'll be here," Steve said.

"T-minus four hours," Sharon saluted before heading back up the hill path towards the palace.

Tony was working in the lab with Bruce and Shuri when Sharon and Natasha made their way in.

"If you are completely certain about leaving, I should…"

Tony shook his head. "No, Princess. We can't take that risk. You need to stay here. I know you can take care of yourself, but you should stay here in Wakanda with your family. Okoye as well."

Shuri nodded and moved to help Bruce with something several paces away.

"Any chance I could convince _you_ to stay here as well?" he looked to Sharon with a hopeful expression.

Sharon and Nat shared a bemused look before focusing back on Tony.

"I wouldn't put money on it," Sharon said.

"But if Pepper and my unborn child were staying…"

"Low blow, Stark," Nat said.

"You stay then," Sharon said to him. "You stay here with your fiancé and unborn child."

"You know I can't," Tony replied.

"I gave you the director's database, don't push your luck," Sharon told him in a clipped tone.

"Well, it wouldn't be me if I didn't try," he said.

"You're out of your mind – even more than I had originally thought – if you really think for a second I would stay behind," Sharon explained. "You aren't serious are you?"

"Yes, I am," Tony said. "I would _very_ much like to have you stay with Pepper and Happy and be safe in Wakanda."

"Not gonna happen," Nat answered for her. "We need Sharon with us. Besides, you won't get Pepper to stay behind either."

"Wishful thinking, I suppose," Tony said. "What's everyone else up to right now?"

"Steve is getting the quinjet stocked," Sharon replied. "And I gave Ned some fake _top secret_ information to read and that'll keep him occupied. I think Pepper, May, and Happy were invited by the Queen to walk the palace grounds and hear some information about the history of Wakanda."

"Rhodey and Clint are trying to sober up Thor and the rodent, so they'll fly without puking on us," Nat said. "But I think Thor was still pretty…hammered," Natasha smirked.

"I see what you did there…" Tony said. "And I like it. Where's Nebula?"

"I should think she's in her room plotting against us," Nat replied.

Tony sighed and shook his head. "No, she is not. But we _should_ make an effort to include her."

"So we can keep an eye on her?"

"No," Tony said.

"How do you know she isn't just leading us as lambs to slaughter?" Natasha asked.

"I just…believe her," Tony said simply.

"I _want_ to believe her, too. But I can't, Tony. But I trust _you,_ " Nat said.

"I'll take that," Tony said. "So, what about you, kiddo?"

"I think you're out of your mind," Sharon told him.

Tony chuckled. "That wasn't the question," he said back to her.

Sharon gave him a look. "I think that's always the answer, though."

"Fair enough," Tony said. "But what do you say?"

"You _know_ I will do what needs to be done," Sharon said. "But I am not going to be buddy-buddy with her. Not until I know that I can truly trust her motives."

"Let me ask you both this: why would Nebula have wasted her time helping me return to Earth? She knew that her father had succeeded in removing half of all living things in the universe, but she chose to come with me, to us, to help put things right? It just doesn't make much sense," Tony said.

"None of what has happened makes sense, so…"

"No," Tony said. "This – this with Nebula is not weird or nonsensical. She's on our side now. We _can_ trust her. And that is the final word on that. Wheels up in less than six hours. You'd both better go make sure you're packed," Tony said before moving away towards Banner and Shuri once more.

…

It had seemed like both an eternity and no time at all had passed since the decision had been made to return to New York. Everyone said their goodbyes to their friends in Wakanda and boarded the quinjet. It would be a tight squeeze for sixteen hours and fourteen people, but they would make it work.

"So, what do _we_ do when we get back?" May asked out loud to no one in particular. "Do we go home?"

"No, you'll all stay at the compound," Happy said almost too quickly. He earned a sly glance from Tony, but luckily he stayed quiet. "Don't you think that's best, Cap?"

Steve was standing near the front of the quinjet while Clint and Nat were piloting. He didn't turn to look at them but he nodded. "We will all stay together."

May put a comforting arm around her nephew's best friend. "See, I told you: we aren't going to be on our own," she said quietly to Ned.

Ned let the woman embrace him while the quinjet went quiet once more.

It was just after their sixth hour in the air that Steve finally convinced Nat and Clint to take a break. He and Sharon took over and he was grateful. It was easier to avoid eye-contact from -the co-pilot's position.

"You are taking the whole stoic and brooding soldier thing to the next level, Steve," Sharon said quietly, only partially teasing. Over the time she'd known him, she'd learned how quiet he could get when he was worried about something, and even more eerily silent when he was pissed. But just as she'd said aloud to him, this was something else altogether. And on quinjet packed with passengers, there was nowhere to be alone with his thoughts.

"I just don't know what else to say anymore. When we get to the compound, we really are going after Thanos."

Sharon nodded, but kept her eyes fixed ahead of her. It was the most beautiful shade of blue and there were only a few wispy clouds. From their current perspective, everything was as it should be.

"Yep, everything goes full throttle when we get to New York," Sharon said.

"I once bet Fury that the world couldn't surprise me anymore, but I'll bet now I owe him a hefty fortune."

"I should think that if we get him back from whatever happened, he won't be asking you to pay up," Sharon smirked.

"He definitely won't if we _don't_ fix things," Steve said sourly. Sharon's smile fell.

"Well, we're going to do our damnedest to find him and put our world and all the other worlds back in good order," Sharon said. "You know this group behind us will do whatever it takes."

Steve remained focused ahead of him but mumbled an 'uh huh' in distracted agreement. Sharon stayed quiet until Nat came to relieve her.

"I'm fine," Sharon said to Nat and Clint. "But I think Steve could use a break. Nat and I can take care of this."

"Um, I…" Clint said.

"Yeah, you and Steve go talk with Ned. Kid needs a superhero pep talk," Nat said, helping Sharon shoo them away.

Steve eyed the women suspiciously, but didn't put up an argument. He vacated his seat and Natasha sat down.

"Did Nebula give anything up?" Sharon asked quietly.

"She's been speaking in hushed tones to Tony and Bruce for about an hour, but I don't think anything has been helpful," Nat replied.

"Great."

"It's like she knows I don't trust her or something," Nat said sarcastically.

"Well, imagine that," Sharon replied sardonically.

"I'm glad someone else can talk to her," Nat said.

"I'm glad you haven't accidentally pushed her out of the quinjet into the Atlantic," Sharon replied.

"That was only that one time. And you were there to catch him."

"He had no trouble remembering the info then, if I recall that correctly," Sharon said.

"Funny how that worked out," Nat laughed. "You know that when we find Thanos, he isn't just going to hand over the stones or gauntlet, right?"

"Of course not."

"We are ill-suited for this," Nat replied. "And outgunned."

"Uh huh," Sharon agreed. "No Wanda, T'challa, or Vision. We have plenty of disheartened and broken down folks though."

"This sounds like a bad made for TV movie," Natasha said.

"And then someone gives a speech that rallies the troop of misfits and then they rise up to win."

"Tony told me that Dr. Strange was able to see all of the possible outcomes and there was one, only one, in which we beat Thanos."

"Too bad life isn't like a video game and we could just stop and jump back to an earlier save," Sharon said.

"The Time Stone could do that, though, right?" Nat asked.

"Probably. But without Strange, can any of us use the stone properly? We could just mess things up worse."

"Maybe Thor?"

"Maybe," Sharon said. "What if Thanos has destroyed them? If they're just…gone?"

"Then we need a plan B, C, D, and E," Nat said.

"There aren't any worlds in any language to describe how much this all sucks, Nat. But I do think I know what Fury was doing – what is creating that signal…Danvers…" Sharon said.

Nat nodded. "Danvers."

…

Author's note: so, I'm still doing this. I'm still trying to get a chapter done here and there.  
Please let me know what you think! I appreciate you all so much!


	16. Chapter 16

Infinity

Chapter 16

Landing in the shuttle bay of the Avengers compound was welcomed by all on board when the 16 hour flight concluded. No one wasted a moment to disembark from the cramped space. Every one of them was grateful to be out of the tiny space and even happier that the Hulk had declined to make an appearance during the trip.

"Happy, please show Ms. Parker and Ned to…"

"I'll take them. Happy is more than welcome to join us though," Pepper said. "We'll see if we have anything left in the kitchen that isn't spoiled."

"Sounds good," May said. "I'm sure we can throw something together," she added with an optimistic smile.

"Thank you," Tony said before kissing Pepper on the cheek. "FRIDAY, give me a quick rundown of all personnel still on the grounds, please," Tony asked when Ned, May, Pepper, and Happy had gone.

FRIDAY quickly listed only the 14 new arrivals.

"FRIDAY, c'mon…"

"Boss, no one else is in this building or any other building in the complex."

"Tony, I told everyone to go. To go home to find their family and friends," Sharon said.

"There was a mass exodus, if you could call the 21 of them a mass," FRIDAY said. "I armed the building when the last left. The only movement has been the drones on sentry duty, boss."

Tony nodded as he absorbed the information. He'd expected it to be quiet. He didn't think _everyone_ would be gone. His mind flashed to Peter's face again and he became lost in silent thought for a second.

"Um, Nat and I are going to track down the source of Fury's signal," Sharon said.

Tony turned to look at Sharon. "Please…"

"Sharon and I will be fine. You all stay here and play nicely with one another," Natasha said.

"Please be careful," Steve said, looking back and forth to the both of them. He knew they were fully equipped to take care of themselves, but he still wanted to be protective. It was an urge he couldn't shake.

"Hey, we're always careful, right, Share?" Nat smirked.

"Oh, yeah," Sharon nodded emphatically. "Safety is my middle name. It's just a quick dash into Manhattan and back. Piece of cake…" she trailed off as the two women exited the shuttle bay. Both Steve and Tony watched them leave.

"So," Nebula said, bringing the focus back. "Where do we go so I can show you where we can find Thanos?" Nebula asked. "I will need a map of the galaxy…"

"I can probably help ya with that," Rocket said, producing a small flash drive like object.

"Micro USB?" Tony said as he accepted and inspected the object.

"Should that mean somethin' to me?" Rocket asked. "I'm not from this planet, remember, genius? And I don't speak nerd…"

Nebula opened the plating on her forearm. "I can handle this," she plugged the drive into her arm.

Fifteen minutes later, the remaining group was in Tony's lab watching Nebula project the entire galaxy around them.

"It's…beautiful," Bruce said, admiring the expansive map all around them.

"This…" Nebula pointed. "…is your earth. Tiny. Relatively insignificant."

"Are you making some kind of point, Scout?" Tony asked in an annoyed voice.

"My father's plan. _The plan._ I've heard about it all my life. He said when he was done, all that would be left for him to do would be to sit back and enjoy it. He wished to be surrounded by the natural beauty collected into one place, one planet. One garden. _The_ garden," Nebula said in a mildly mocking tone.

Rhodey was rolling his eyes while Rocket was making gagging noises. He stopped only when Steve gave him a warning look from the head of the lab table.

Thor stood suddenly and all eyes were on him. "Where is this planet?" He asked.

"Here," Nebula pointed to a green pinpoint on the other side of the room. It clearly was meant to be the total other end of the galaxy.

"We will need a group to stay here and one to go…"

"Cap, space? Really?" Clint asked. "I know we all agreed to do whatever it takes, but…"

"Nebula, are you absolutely certain that this is where we will find Thanos?" Steve asked her.

"It is the most certain of anything I've been in my life," Nebula replied firmly.

She had also never been more disappointed in her life. Thanos had done many, _many_ things that had infuriated her and deeply saddened her, but she'd believed his stories all the same. All of the stories all the same. All of the stories and plans that ended with her and Gamora, one on each side of him, walking through the triumphant victory garden for all of eternity.

It was all lies.

Every single one of them.

She had made up her mind that she would no longer be a pawn in Thanos' game. Nebula would seek vengeance for Gamora. And vengeance for all of the lives he'd so selfishly destroyed in the universe.

"Can you get us up there, Tony?" Steve asked.

Tony rolled his neck to keep himself from shouting _duh_ at Steve. "Of course I can," he replied in a tone that he hoped conveyed that same message.

"But what do we do when we get there?" Bruce asked. "It's not like we can just knock on his door and ask him to give us the gauntlet."

"He probably won't believe that we're girl scouts trying to sell him cookies," Rhodey added.

"And if Thanos was destroyed the stones already?" Rocket asked.

Everyone turned to stare at Rocket.

"What?" he said. "Let's be real here. They could be unusable or even totally destroyed. No one would be able to take them from him to reverse the stuff. Like we want to do," he explained. "It's what I would do."

"That'll just have to be a bridge we cross if and when we have to," Steve said. "Until we arrive there, our assumption is that the stones both exist and are fully functional."

"You know what happens when you assume, though," Tony said.

"Yeah, Cap. Now might not be the best time for your optimistic outlook," Rhodey said. "This guy wreaked so much havoc and chaos…"

"We can figure out the rest of the plan on the way there," Steve said gruffly. "Let's just get there first. Nothing matters if we don't get to Thanos in the first place."

That was something they could all agree on.

They split into smaller teams and began preparations for travel to the garden planet to find Thanos and bring back the stones so they could fix everything.

…

"Do you think she'll come?" Nat asked.

The two women had made the short trip into Manhattan and were now out tracking for the beacon Fury had left. There were some people out and about, but compared to what it would have been a week ago, it was a total ghost tone.

Sharon snorted. "Um, I don't know if _I_ even want to be here, so if given the option, I'm thinking she'll skip."

"Except Fury called her. He said she would always respond," Nat said.

"I know," Sharon said back. "But what if she was one of the people that didn't make it? What if she's gone, too?"

Nat stopped walking for a moment. It was a thought she hadn't totally considered.

"We have to try though, don't we?" Nat said.

"Of course we do," Sharon said. "It should be right there," she pointed.

Both women looked in that particular direction and there was a black SUV directly next to the pinpoint.

"That looks like one of Fury's cars if I've ever seen one," Sharon said.

The two women walked around to the vehicle and found that it was locked tight. It was a security feature to make sure that an unlocked door would not result in a stolen vehicle.

"Do you think we should bring in Fury's car?" Sharon asked.

"If it allows us to unlock the door and start the car, I think we should," Nat said back.

"Let's locate the beeper first," Sharon said. "It should be right about…there," she pointed and both women looked down at a pile of leaves and other garbage in the gutter.

Natasha kicked some of the trash around with the toe of her boot and the beeper skittered out. It was beat up, but when she picked it up, Nat smiled. The screen lit up.

"It's still trying to do…something…" she said.

"Good," Sharon said. "I'm kinda shocked that no one picked it up before now, but I guess we only found it because we knew where to look."

"Maybe we can boost the signal," Nat said. "See if we can get some kind of response if Danvers wasn't one of Thanos' casualties."

"How mad will everyone be if she does show up? That we've kept her a secret all this time?" Sharon asked as they moved back to the SUV left by Hill and Fury.

Natasha shrugged. "Seventy-thirty? We can hope she can save the universe if she comes," She said. "Is anyone really going to be mad if the world is put back right?"

"Tony Stark. Steve Rogers," Sharon said. "Both will not be happy that Fury had his wild card in his pocket but let them fight Loki and the Chitauri, and Ultron."

"I think an argument could be made when it comes to Ultron. That was quite literally Tony's fault. He created a robot that decided for itself that it was going to take over the world," Nat replied.

"True," Sharon said. "What's the likelihood that this won't blow up on me when I touch the door handle?"

"It's more likely to blow up on you than Steve will," Nat said.

"That doesn't give me any confidence whatsoever."

Sharon took a deep breath and stuck her index finger out onto the door handle. A half second passed while it read her finger print. After what felt like an eternity, the car locks disengaged loudly. Both women jumped at the sound, but were truly relieved that no one exploded.

"Okay…which car would you like to take? I can take the one that might blow up…you take the pager," Nat handed it to Sharon.

"Okay, sounds like a p…"

Sharon was stopped mid-sentence by the pitiful cry of a baby. And it sounded like it was coming from a very young baby at that.

Sharon and Nat hadn't talked about it, but both had been worried about this exact problem: parentless children left all over the world.

It was a desperate, hungry sound. And it carried through one of the open windows above them and echoed off the buildings around them on the street.

"We don't really have a choice," Natasha said.

Sharon shook her head. "No, we don't."

The open window was on the third floor above them.

"Scale the building or take the stairs?" Sharon asked.

"Try the easy way first?" Nat replied.

"Okay," Sharon nodded.

Both women locked the vehicles once more and got a running start for the building. They jumped last minute and were able to launch themselves up to the edge of the second floor balcony. They reached up and pulled themselves up to the next floor's balcony and panted there when they flipped over the railing.

Natasha pulled the hair out of her face and Sharon brushed some leaves off of her pants.

"I kinda wish I would have worn different shoes."

"I kinda wish I would have stretched," Sharon said with a slight groan.

The baby wailed again and brought Sharon and Natasha focused on the task at hand once more.

They tried to open the patio door but it would not budge. They peered into the dark apartment to make sure the baby wasn't in that particular rom. Sharon nodded at Natasha and she used her better soled shoe through the glass door. A moment later, they'd let themselves in.

"Hello?" Natasha called.

A moment later, a little girl shuffled out into the living room. "The baby's hungry. She's this way," she said to Natasha and Sharon.

They followed the girl into a back bedroom and found the baby girl, only a few months old, alone in her crib.

"I'm Sharon, and this is Natasha. What's your name?" she said, crouching down on the floor.

"I'm Rachel," she said quietly. "Do you know what happened to Mommy?"

"Um…" Sharon said.

"Rachel, when was the last time you saw your mom?" Natasha asked.

The little girl started to cry and Natasha hurried to wrap her arms around her.

"Don't worry, Rachel," Sharon said. "You did a great job taking care of the baby. Is she your sister?" she asked.

"Yes. Her name is Vanessa," Rachel sniffed. "She's only a few months old."

"And how old are you?" Natasha asked.

"I'm five," she replied.

Sharon and Natasha shared a silent conversation. They knew they were going to have to take the girls with them.

"Let's go see if we can find some of your clothes and pack them up," Natasha said. "Sharon is going to stay here with your sister and get some of her things packed up. Then you both will come with us until we can find your mom, okay?"

Rachel nodded and took Natasha by the hand and led her out of the room.

Sharon looked down at baby Vanessa.

"Welcome to the Avengers, Vanessa," Sharon whispered down to the baby.

…

Author's Note: So what do you think? Like where this is going? Let me know!


	17. Chapter 17

Infinity

Chapter 17

Tony Stark was pacing. He'd been pacing for a while now. Sharon and Natasha had been gone too long. The GPS said they were headed back to the compound, but no one was answering calls. That made him angry.

"How are you _so_ calm?" Tony said to Steve. The two of them went down to the garage to wait for the two women. "It's really pissing me off, Cap."

"What good will flying off the handle do?" Steve said in an even tone. Truthfully, he was as anxious as Tony was, but he was trying to be logical as possible at this point. "Besides, you've got the whole frantic pacing thing covered."

Tony glared at him.

"Boss, the car is returning to the compound," FRIDAY said.

"It's about damn time," he said angrily.

Steve remained seated, but Tony waited, arms folded across his chest, right in front of the door.

A moment later, it opened and both Sharon and Natasha came in carrying sleeping children.

Steve cocked his head to one side and looked baffled and Tony's face was frozen with his mouth open.

"Hiya, boys," Nat said in a low whisper. She had Rachel in her arms and a backpack in fluorescent purple slung over her shoulder.

"I'm so sorry we didn't respond. The girls were sleeping so peacefully so we turned down the alerts," Sharon said.

"Um, well…" Steve said, looking uncertain. This was an addition to the compound he had not thought about.

Sharon bounced the baby in her arms a little as she fussed in her sleep and Steve couldn't help but watch.

"So, which of you is going to explain the kiddos?" Tony asked quietly.

"It's pretty clear, Tony, that the kids were alone," Steve said. "And you couldn't leave them."

"Yes," Sharon said.

Steve moved to take the older of the two girls from Nat.

"We heard the baby crying when we found the pager," Natasha said, producing it from the backpack. "Their mom disappeared with the snap and we couldn't leave a five year old to fend for herself and a baby."

"But…"

"We can take them to Mrs. Parker and Happy," Steve said.

Natasha slid the strap of the purple backpack onto Steve's shoulder.

"You can fill Nat in on the plan?" Steve said to Tony.

"And Nat, you can…"

"Oh, no. I'll wait for you talk about that," she said, one eyebrow raised.

The little girl in his arms snuggled closer into Steve's shoulder.

"Let's go find a quiet place for them," Sharon said. She moved carefully with a baby bag slung over her own shoulder and the infant in her arms.

Tony and Natasha watched the two of them walk away and heard Sharon telling Steve about the girls.

"The older one is Rachel. She's five," Sharon said quietly. "And this is Vanessa," she said, indicating the baby in her arms.

"Where did you find them?"

"Their apartment. One of the windows was an open and we heard Vanessa crying. We broke in and found that Rachel had been caring for her baby sister and herself since their mom disappeared. She was afraid to leave, so they were almost out of formula for the baby and…" Sharon choked up.

Steve shifted the sleeping child in his arms, so he would have a free hand. He touched Sharon's back lightly, but reassuringly. "The girls will be safe here. You and Nat did the best thing for them," he said.

Sharon leaned her head to his shoulder. "But how many children, just on Earth, just in the US, are alone right now? They either watched their loved ones disappear or woke up to find they were totally alone? I wonder if Thanos factored that into his grand plan to save us. Doubtful," she said quietly. "I heard her crying and…and I would have moved a mountain to get to her."

"I can't say that everything will be okay, but we will do our very bes4t to make it as okay as we can. We have a plan to find Thanos. Nebula gave us the coordinates to the planet he saved for himself. We'll be headed to find him."

"When do you leave?" Sharon asked.

"We were waiting for you and Natasha to get back. So, as soon as we can all get suited up," Steve answered. "And when we get these two settled in."

"I know you weren't planning on me going, but I'll voluntarily stay here with the girls and with May, and Ned, and you know…" she trailed off.

"Wait, what?" Steve said. "You aren't…"

"I have to stay here," she said. "Even more so now."

"You're sure?" Steve asked.

"You can't tell me that you were planning on me going with you. I have a _very_ hard time believing that, Captain Rogers," she said with a smirk. "By the way, you're a natural there, holding Rachel," she said.

"What do you think about kids?" Steve said suddenly.

"Is this a general opinion question on children? Or…" she teased.

"I know this is actually the worst time to talk about it, but…"

Sharon shrugged. "Growing up surrounded by my spoiled cousins and their friends, and babysitting for the youngest ones, and I had pretty much decided I didn't want kids. And I got into SHIELD and didn't really have time even date, let alone worry about having babies, you know?" Sharon said. "And you? How do you feel about a family?"

"If you would have asked me before I joined the army and go the serum, it would have been a hell no. I didn't want to pass any bad health onto children; it was terrible growing up sick all the time. It didn't matter anyway: women didn't even look at me," he laughed humorlessly. "And you don't need to fan my ego and say _of course they did, you just didn't notice_ ," Steve said before Sharon could jump in.

Sharon decided to lean in and kiss him instead, which took a bit of maneuvering considering the kids they each held in their arms between them. They were abruptly interrupted a moment later, though, when the door at the end of the hall opened.

A bashful Bruce Banner was turning red as the two of them split apart.

"Oh! I'm…" Bruce sputtered, embarrassed as to what he just walked into. He began to retreat.

"No, no, it's okay," Steve said.

Bruce stopped then realized there were children with them as well.

"Uh…"

"Long-ish story," Sharon answered him. "Are Happy and the others this way?" Sharon asked, pointing to where he'd come from.

Bruce nodded and rubbed his hand through his hair.

"Whose kids are these?" Bruce asked as he held the door open for Sharon and Steve.

"Nat and I came upon them by sheer coincidence," Sharon said. "Mom disappeared in the snap," she said quietly.

Bruce looked momentarily horrified. "Oh…right," he said. "I wonder how many families all over the world…" he trailed off when he saw Steve's face silently pleading him to not finish that particular thought. "Did you find what you went looking for?" he changed the subject as they continued walking.

"Yes. Natasha has it. It's a pager. We're hoping we can amplify a signal and get a response," she said.

They were finally in the living quarters of the compound and Happy was the first to see Steve and Sharon holding kids.

"We set up a room already," Happy said, indicating he'd already though of this situation. "We found a couple of cribs in storage, too. Ned and I cleaned them up and set up a couple extra beds."

Steve and Sharon followed behind him.

"Did you think we were going to come back with kids?" Sharon smiled.

"If not you and Romanoff, then one of us. I thought we should be ready," Happy said. "You find what Fury left?"

"We did," Sharon nodded.

The room Happy opened up was one of the meeting rooms, but there were windows and toys and a couple of beds and cribs like Happy had said.

"You've been busy," Steve said.

"Well, I'm not a superhero, so I had to find something to keep Ned and me occupied," Happy said.

"You're just a big softie," Sharon said before giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"I am not. And if we get the world put back together, I will deny all of this til the end of time," Happy said with a smirk.

…

"So, tell me again why Fury was carrying this almost entirely useless pager?" Tony said to Natasha. "I guess I'm asking because I'd like to know who in the hell he was calling and how long he has known this person, but also why he was using a pager to call someone anyway…"

"Can you just first get the damn signal amplified?" Nat said, cutting off his non-stop stream of questions.

"Yeah, I'm probably gonna need you to ask me nicely," Tony said back, tossing her a look.

"Well, I won't, so…" Nat replied with a look of her own.

Tony continued to type on his computer. "Do you remember when I hired you as my personal assistant? That was great. You actually listened to what I said. It was…magical, really."

Natasha sighed. "You know that I was only following Fury's orders, Tony," she smiled.

"So, who what Fury long distance calling with a pager? Couldn't find a carrier pigeon or a telegraph?" Tony asked as he continued to do something on his computer. "I know Fury has more secrets than what I'd found between my own research and the data dump five years ago. And I didn't spend a lot of time going through the info that Sharon gave me access, to, so… You might as well just tell me," he looked up at her.

"I think it's a conversation we all need to have together," Natasha said.

"Well, then, get the band all in one room, please and thank you."

…

The group, minus Ned and May, were once more gathered together – this time in Tony's lab. He'd finished the amplifier for the pager's signal and now he waited with everyone to hear from Natasha and Sharon about who they'd invited over.

"Captain Carol Danvers," Sharon said.

It didn't resonate with anyone, not even Clint.

"Okay, well, in 1989, SHIELD and the US Air Force – and you won't find this info written down anywhere – started Project PEGASUS. It was in the facility that Loki blew up with the Tesseract," Sharon said.

"It's a whole long story, but SHIELD had Dr. Wendy Lawson, a Kree scientist, working for us."

Nebula and Rocket started paying more attention.

"She was researching alternative forms of energy as well as trying to find a new home for the Skrulls – they were in the middle of an ongoing war – and needed to get far away from the Kree."

"Using the Tesseract?" Steve asked.

Sharon nodded. "Dr. Lawson was successful and Danvers was helping her test out the engine and, our intel is fuzzy at this point, but the Kree showed up and killed Lawson because she was trying to blow the engine up to keep it from them. Danvers was able to finish what Lawson started and blew it up. Official documentation states that Lawson and Danvers were killed in the explosion."

"Danvers was actually alive, but unconscious and was taken by the Kree to their home planet," Natasha said. "She thought she was Kree when she woke up and had lost all her memory of her previous life. Well, until she came back to Earth in 1995 and ended up investigated by SHIELD – specifically Nick Fury."

"And so he's calling her because…?" Tony said.

"Probably because she's got a lot of powers. She absorbed the energy from the explosion – so energy from the Tesseract."

"Have you met her?" Bruce asked of Natasha and Sharon.

Natasha shook her head no and looked to Sharon.

"Just once," Sharon said. "It was brief and Fury to me to never mention it."

"So, that' show you knew of her. But what about you Romanoff? How did you find out about her?" Clint asked, slightly put out that he'd been left out.

"Is it really important?" Natasha asked. "The reality is, she could probably help us if she made it," Nat said.

"We can't wait around for her though," Steve told them. "We need to go as soon as possible."

"Cap's right," Tony said. "We need to get a move on. We don't know if this Danvers person is around after the snap or if she hasn't died in the last however many years… When was she here last?" Tony looked to Sharon.

"Maybe 15 years ago?" Sharon said.

"Yeah. I'm not gonna put my hopes in this lady," Rocket said.

"The rabbit is right," Thor said. "We must go. Now."

…

Author's note; okay, let me know what you think!


End file.
